MEMOIRS 



LIFE. ADVENTURES, AND MILITARY 
EXPLOITS 



ISMEL PUTIAM, 



SENIOR MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY OF 
THE UNITED STATES, AND NEXT IN RANK TO 
GENERAL WASHINGTlWr^r--^ 



ITHACA, N. Y.: 
MACK, ANDRUS & COMPANY. 

18 4 5. 



THE LIFE 



mmUi ISIilEL PIfTMl. 



Israel Putnam, who, through a regu- 

\T gradation of promotion, became the 

snior Major General in the army of the 

Jnited States, and next in rank to General 

Vashington, was born at Salem, in the Pro- 

ince, now State of Massachusetts, on the 

7th of January, 1718. His father, Capt. 

Jos ih Putnam, was the son of Mr. John 

Pu', am, who, with two brothers, came from 

thi^ outh of England, and were among the 

first settlers of Salem. 

When we thus behold a person, from the 
humble walks of life, starting unnoticed in 
the career of fame, and, by an undeviating 
progress through a life of honor, arriving at 
the highest dignity in the state ; curiosity is 
.strongly excited, and philosophy loves to 



4 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

trace the path of glory from the craxile of 
obscurity to the summit of elevation. 

Although our ancestors, the first settlers 
of this land, amidst the extreme pressure of 
poverty and danger, early instituted schools 
for the education of youth, destined for the 
learned professions; yet it was thought suf- 
ficient to instruct those destined to labor on 
the earth, in reading, writing, and such ru- 
diments of arithmetic as might be requisite 
for keeping the accounts of their little trans- 
actions with each other. Few farmers' 
sons had more advantages, none less. In 
this state of mediocrity it was young Put- 
nam's lot to be placed. His early instruct 
tion was not considerable, and the active 
scenes of life in which he was afterwards 
engaged, prevented the opportunity of great 
hterary improvement. His numerous ori- 
ginal letters, though deficient in schoolastic 
accuracy, always display the goodness of 
his heart, and frequently the strength of his 
native genius. He had a certain h>--nic 
mode of expression, and an unaffect*. :\ pi- 
grammatic turn, which characterized most 
of his writings. 

To compensate partially for the deficien- 
cy of education, (though nothing can re- 
move or counterbalance the inconvenien- 
cies experienced from it in public life,) he 
derived from his parents the source of innu- 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. i> 

nierable advantages in the stamina of a 
vigorous constitution. Nature, liberal in 
bestowing on him bodily strength, hardi- 
ness, and'activity, was by no means parsi- 
monious in mental endowments. While 
we leave the qualities of the understanding 
to be developed in the process of life, it 
may not be improper, in this place, to des- 
ignate some of the circumstances which 
were calculated to distinguish him after- 
wards as a partisan officer. 

His disposition was as frank and gener- 
ous as his mind was fearless and indepen- 
dent. He disguised nothing ; indeed, he 
seemed incapable of disguise. Perhaps, in 
the intercourse he was ultimately obliged 
to have with an artful w^orld, his sincerity, 
on some occasions, outwent his discretion. 
Although he had too much suavity in his 
nature to commence a quarrel, he had too 
much sensibility not to feel, and too much 
honor not to resent, an intended insult.^ — 
The first time he w^ent to Boston, he was 
insV/'^J for his rusticity by a bo}^ twice his 
siUrlind age ; after bearing the sarcasms 
until his patience was worn out, he chal- 
lenged, engaged, and vanquished his un- 
mannerly antagonist, to the great diversion 
of a crowd of spectators. While a strip- 
ling his ambition was to perform the labor 
of a man, and to excel in athletick diver- 
1* 



6 LIFE OP PUTNAM. 

sions. In that rude, but masculine age, 
whenever the village youth assembled on 
their usual occasions of festivity, pitching 
the bar, running, leaping and wrestling 
were favorite amusements. At such gym- 
nastic exercises (in which during the hero- 
ic times of ancient Greece and Rome, con- 
quest was considered as the promise of fu- 
ture military fame) he bore the palm from 
almost every ring. 

Before the refinements of luxury, and 
the consequent increase of expenses had 
rendered the maintenance of a family in- 
convenient or burdensome in America, the 
sexes entered into matrimony at an early 
age. Competence, attainable by all, was 
the limit of pursuit. After the hardships of 
making a new settlement were overcome, 
and the evils of penury removed, the inhab- 
itants enjoyed, in the lot of equality, inno- 
cence, and security, scenes equally delight- 
ful with those pictured by the glowing im- 
agination of the poets in their favorite pas- 
toral hfe, or fabulous golden age. Indeed, 
the condition of mankind was never more 
enviable. Neither disparity of age and for- 
tune, nor schemes of ambition and grand- 
eur, nor the pride and avarice of high-mind- 
ed and mercenary parents, interposed those 
obstacles to the union of congenial souls, 
which frequently in more polished sodety 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 7 

prevent, imbitter or destroy all the felicity 
of the connubial state. Mr. Putnam, be- 
fore the twenty-first year of his age, tnar^ 
ried Miss Pope, daughter of Mr. John Pope 
of Salem, by whom he had ten childreti, 
seven of whom are still living. He lost 
the wife of his youth in 1764. Some time 
after, he married Mrs. Gardiner, widow 
of the late Mr. Gardiuer, of Gardiner's Isl- 
and, by whom he had no issue. She died 
in 1777. 

]n the year 1739, he removed from Sa- 
lem to Pomfret, an inland fertile town in 
Connecticut, forty miles east of Hartford: 
having here purchased a considerable tract 
of land, he applied himself successfully to 
agriculture. 

The first years on a farm are not, how- 
ever, exempt from disasters and disappoint- 
ments, which can only be remedied by 
Stubborn and patient industry. Our farmer^ 
sufficiently Occupied in building a house 
and barn, felling woods, making fences, 
sowing grain, planting orchards, and ta* 
king care of his stock, had to encounter, in 
turn, the calamities occasioned by drought ^ 
in summer, blast in harvest, loss of cattle | 
in winter, and the desolation of his sheep- \ 
fold by wolves. In one night he had sev- 
enty fine sheep and goats killed, besides 
many lambs and kids wounded. This hdv- 



8 LIFE OP PUTNAM. 

oc was committed by a she-wolf, which* 
with her annual whelps, liad for several 
years infested the vicinity. The young 
were commonly destroyed by the vigilance 
of the hunters, but the old one was too sa" 
gacious to come within reach of gun-shot : 
upon being closely pursued, she would gen- 
erally fly to the western woods, and return 
the next winter with another litter of 
whelps. 

This wolf, at length, became such an in^ 
tolerable nuisance, thai Mr. Putnam enter- 
ed into a combination with five of his neigh- 
bors to hunt alternately until they could 
destroy her. Two, by rotation, were to be 
constantly in pursuit. It was known, that, 
having lost the toes from one foot, by a steel 
trap, she made one track shorter than the 
other. By this vestige, the pursuers recog- 
nized, in a light snow, the route of this per- 
nicious animal. Having followed her to 
Connecticut river, and found she had re- 
turned back in a direct course towards 
Pomfret, they immediately returned, and 
by ten o'clock the next morning, the blood 
hounds had driven her into a den, about 
three miles distant from the house of Mr. 
Putnam. The people soon collected with 
dogs, guns, straw, fire and sulphur, to at- 
tack the common enemy. With this ap- 
paratus several unsuccessful efforts were 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 9 

made to force her from the den. The 
hounds came back badly wounded, and re- 
fused to return. The smoke of blazing 
straw had no effect. Nor did the fumes 
of burnt brimstone, with which the cavern 
was filled, compel her to quit the retire- 
ment. Wearied with such fruitless at- 
tempts, which had brought the time to ten 
o'clock at night, Mr. Putnam tried once 
more to make his dog enter, but in vain. — 
He proposed to his negro man to go down 
into the cavern and shoot the wolf : the ne- 
gro dechned the hazardous service. Then 
it was, that their master, angry at the dis- 
appointment, and declaring that he was 
ashamed to have a coward in his family, re- 
solved himself to destroy the ferocious 
beast, lest she should escape through some 
unknown fissure of the rock. His neigh- 
bors strongly remonstrated against the per- 
ilous enterprise : but he knowing that wild 
animals were intimidated by fire, and hav- 
ing provided several strips of birch bark, the 
only combustible material which he could 
obtain, that would afford light in this deep 
and darksome cave, prepared for his de^ 
scent. Having accordingly divested him- 
self of his coat and waistcoat, and having a 
long rope fastened round his legs, by which 
he might be pulled back at a concerted sig^ 



10 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

nal, he entered head foremost, with the 
blazing torch in his hand. 

The aperture of the den, on the east side 
of a very high ledge of rocks, is about two 
feet square ; from thence it descends ob- 
liquely fifteen feet, then running horizontal- 
ly about ten more, it ascends gradually six- 
teen feet towards its termination. The 
sides of this subterraneous cavity are com- 
posed of smooth and solid rocks, which 
seem to have been divided from each other 
by some former earthquake. The top and 
bottom are also of stone, and the entrance, 
in winter, being covered with ice, is ex- 
ceedingly shppery. It is in no place high 
enough for a man to raise himself upright : 
nor in any part more than three feet in 
width. 

Having groped his passage to the horizon- 
tal part of the den, the most terrifying dark- 
ness appeared in front of the dim circle of 
light afforded by his torch. It was silent 
as the house of death. None but monsters 
of the desert had ever before explored this 
solitary mansion of horror. He, cautious- 
ly proceeding onward, came to the ascent, 
w^hich he slowly mounted on his hands and 
knees, until he discovered the glaring eye- 
balls of the wolf, which was sitting at 
the extremity of the cavern. Startled at 
the sight of fire, she gnashed her teeth and 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 11 

gave a sullen growl. As soon as he had 
made the necessary discovery, he kicked 
the rope as a signal for pulling him out. 
The people at the mouth of the den, w^ho 
had listened with painful anxiety, hearing 
the growling of the wolf, and supposing 
their friend to be in the most iminent dan- 
ger, drew him forth with such celerity that 
his shirt was stripped over his head, and 
his skin severely lacerated. After he had 
adjusted his clothes and loaded his gun 
with nine buckshot, holding a torch in one 
hand and the musket in the other, he de- 
scended the second time. When he drew 
nearer than before, the wolf, assuming a 
still more fierce and terrible appearance, 
howling, rolling her eyes, snapping her 
teeth, and dropping her head between her 
legs, was evidently in the attitude and on 
the point of springing at him. At the crit- 
ical instant, he levelled and fired at her 
head. Stunned with the shock, and suffo- 
cated with the smoke, he immediately 
found himself drawn out of the cave. But 
having refreshed himself, and permitted the 
smoke to dissipate, he went down the third 
time. Once more he came witiiin sight of 
the wolf, which appearing very passive, he 
applied the torch to her nose ; and perceiv- 
ing her dead, he took hold of her ears, and 
then kicking the rope (still tied round his 



13 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

legs) the people above, with no small exul- 
tation, dragged them both out together. 

1 have offered these facts in greater de- 
tail, because they contain a display of char- 
acter ; and because they have been erro- 
neously related in several European publi- 
cations, and very much mutilated in the 
history of Connecticut, a work as replete 
with falsehood as destitute of genius, lately 
printed in London. 

Prosperity, at length, began to attend the 
agricultural affairs of Mr. Putnam. He 
was acknowleded to be a skilful and inde- 
fatigable manager. His fields were mostly 
enclosed with stone walls. His crops com- 
monly succeeded, because the land was 
well tilled and manured. His pastures and 
meadows became luxuriant. His cattle 
were of the best breed and in good order. 
His garden and fruit trees prohfic With 
the avails of the surplusage of his produce, 
foreign articles were purchased. Within 
doors he found the compensation of his la- 
bors in the plenty of excellent provisions, 
as well as in the happiness of domestic so- 
ciety. 

A more particular description of his tran- 
sition from narrow to easy circumstances 
might be given ; but the mind that shall 
have acquired an idea of the habits of la- 
bor and simplicity, to which the industrious 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 13 

colonists were accustomed, will readily 
supply the omission. 

But the time had now arrived, which 
was to turn the instruments of husbandry 
into weapons of hostility, and to exchange 
the hunting of wolves, who had ravaged 
the sheepfolds, for the pursuit after savages 
who had desolated the frontiers. Mr. Put- 
nam was about thirty-seven years old when 
the war between England and France, 
which preceded the last, broke out in A- 
merica. His reputation must have been 
favorably known to the government, since 
among the first troops that were levied by 
Connecticut, in 1775, he was appointed to 
the command of a company in Lyman's 
regiment of Provincials. 

As he was extremely popular, he found 
no difficulty in enlisting his complement of 
recruits from the most hardy, enterprising, 
and respectable young men of his neighbor- 
hood. The regiment joined the army, at 
the opening of the campaign, not far dis- 
tant from Crown-Point. Soon after his ar- 
rival at camp, he became acquainted with 
the famous partisan Captain, afterwards 
Major Rogers ; with whom he was fre- 
quently associated in traversing the wilder- 
ness, reconnoitering the enemy's lines, gain- 
ing intelligence, and taking straggling pris- 
oners : as well as in beating up the quar- 
2 



14 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

ters and surprising the advanced pickets of 
their army. For these operations a corps 
of rangers was formed from the irregulars. 
The first time Rogers and Putnam were 
detached with a party of these Hght troops, 
it was the fortune of the latter to preserve, 
with his own hand, the life of the former, 
and to cement their friendship with the 
blood of one of their enemies. 

The object of this expedition was to ob- 
tain an accurate knowledge of the position 
and state of the works at Crown Point. — ■ 
It was impracticable to approach v^ith thenr 
party near enough for this purpose, with- 
out being discovered. Alone, the underta- 
king was sufficiently hazardous on account 
of the swarms of hostile Indians, who in- 
fested the woods. Our two partisans, how- 
ever, left all their men at a convenient dis- 
tance, with strict orders to continue con- 
cealed until their return. Having thus cau- 
tiously taken their arrangements, they ad- 
vanced with the profoundest silence in the 
evening ; and lay, during the night, contig- 
uous to the fortress. Early in the morning 
they approached so close as to be able to 
give satisfactory information to the general 
who had sent them, on the several points 
to which their attention had been directed : 
but Capt. Rogers, being at a little distance 
from Capt. Putnam, fortuitously met <a 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 15 

stout Frenchman, who instantly seized his 
fusee with one hand, and with the other at- 
tempted to stab him, while he called to an 
adjacent guard for assistance. The guard 
answered. Putnam perceiving the iminent 
danger of his friend, and that no time was 
to be lost, or farther alarm given by firing, 
ran rapidly to them, while they were yet 
struggling, and with the butt end of his 
piece laid the Frenchman dead at his feet. 
The partisans, to elude pursuit, precipita- 
ted their flight, joined the party, and re- 
turned whhout loss to the encampment. — 
The war was chequered with various for- 
tunes in different quarters — such as the 
total defeat of General Braddock, and the 
splendid victory of Sir William Johnson 
over the French troops commanded by the 
Baron Dieskau. The brilHancy of this suc- 
cess was necessary to console the Ameri- 
cans for the disgrace of that disaster. — 
Here I might, indexed, take a pride in con- 
trasting the conduct of the British regulars, 
who had been ambuscaded on the Monon- 
gahela, with that of the Provincials, (under 
Johnson,) who, having been attacked in 
their lines, gallantly repulsed the enemy 
and took their General prisoner, did 1 con- 
sider myself at liberty to swell this essay 
with reflections on events, in which Put- 
nam was not directly concerned. The 



16 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

time for which the colonial troops engaged 
to serve, terminated with the campaign. — 
Putnam was re-appointed, and again took 
the field in 1756. ' 

Few are so ignorant of war as not to 
know, that mihtary adventures, in the 
laight, are always extremely liable to acci- 
dents. Captain Putnam, having been com- 
manded to reconnoitre the enemy's camp 
at the Ovens, near Ticonderoga, took the 
brave lieutenant Robert Durkee as his com- 
panion. In attempting to execute these or- 
ders, he narrowly missed being taken him- 
self in the first instance, and killing his 
friend in the second. It was customary for 
the British and Provincial troops to place 
their fires round their camp, which fre- 
quently exposed them to their enemy's 
scouts and palroles. A contrary practice, 
then unknown in the English army, pre- 
vailed among the French and Indians. — 
The plan was much more rational ; they 
kept their fires in the centre, lodge^rl their 
men circularly at a distance, and posted 
their sentinels in the surrounding darkness. 
Our partisans approached the camp — and 
supposing the sentries were within the cir- 
cle of fires, crept upon their hands and 
kne^^s with the greatest possible caution, 
until, to their utter astonishment, they 
found themselves in the thickest of the en^ 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 17 

emy. The sentinels, discovering th^m, 
fired and slightly wounded Durkee in the 
thigh. He and Putnam had no alternative. 
They fled. The latter, being foremost and 
scarcely able to see his hand before him, 
soon plunged into a clay-pit. Durkee, al- 
most at the identical moment, came tum- 
bling after. Putnam, by no means pleased 
at finding a companion, and beliving him 
to be one of the enemy, lifted up his toma- 
hawk to give the deadly blow — when Dur- 
kee [who had followed so closely as to 
know him] inquired whether he had es- 
caped unhurt. Captain Putnam, instantly 
recognizing the voice, dropped his weap- 
on ; and both springing from the pit, made 
good their retreat to the neighbormg hedg- 
es, amidst a shower of random shot.— 
There they betook themselves to a large 
log, by the side of which they lodged the 
remainder of the night. Before they lay 
down. Captain Putnam said he had a httle 
rum in his canteen, which could never be 
more acceptable or necessary ; but on ex- 
amining the canteen, which hung under 
his arm, he found the enemy had pierced 
it with their balls, and that there was not a 
drop of liquor left. The next day he found 
fourteen bullet holes in his blanket. 

In the same summer, a body of the ene- 
my, consistmg of 600 men, attacked the 
2* 



18 Llf^E OP PU'TNAM. 

baggage and provision wagons at a p]^6& 
called the Half-way Brook ; it being eqiii^ 
distant from Fort Edward and the south 
end of Lake George. Having killed the 
oxen and plundered the wagons, they re-^ 
treated with their booty, without having 
met with such resistance as might have 
been expected from the strength of the es- 
cort. General Webb, upon receiving in* 
telligence of this disaster, ordered the Cap- 
tains Putnam and Rogers "to take 100 vol- 
unteers in boats, with ''two wall-pieces and 
two blunderbusses, and to proceed down 
lake G-eorge to a certain point ; there to 
leave the batteaux tmder a proper guard, 
and thence to cross by land so as to harass, 
and, if practicable, intercept the retreating 
enemy at the narrows.'' These orders 
were executed with so much punctuality, 
that the party arrived at the destined place 
half an hour before the hostile boats came 
in view. Here they waited, under coven 
until the enemy (ignorant of these proceed- 
ings) entered the narrows with their bat' 
teaux loaded with plunder. Then the vol- 
unteers poured upon them volley after vol- 
ley, killed many of the oarsmen, sunk a 
number of the batteaux, and would soon 
have destroyed the whole body of the ene- 
my, had not the usual precipitancy of their 
passage (favored by the wind) carried them 



LIFE OF PtJtNAM. ID 

ih rough the narrows into the wide part of 
South Bay, whera they were out of the 
reach of nmsket shot. The shattered rem- 
nant of the little fleet soon arrived at Ti- 
conderoga, and gave information that Put- 
nam and Rogers were at the narrows. A 
fresh party was instantly detached to cut 
them in pieces, on their return to Fort Ed*- 
ward. Our partisans, sensible of the prob^ 
ability of such an attempt, and J)eing full 
twenty miles from their boats, strained ev> 
ery nerve to reach them as soon as jDossi- 
ble, which they effected the same night. — 
TS'ext day, Vvhen they had returned as far 
as Sabbath-day-point, they discovered, on 
shore, the before-mentioned detachment of 
300 men, who had passed them in the 
night, and who now, on perceiving our 
party, took to their boats with the greatest 
alacrity, and rowed O'it to give battle. — •■ 
They advanced in line^ maintaining a good 
mein, and feHcitating themselves upon the 
prospect of an easy conquest, from the 
great superiority of their numbers. Flush- 
ed with these expectations, they were per- 
mitted to come within pistol-shot before a 
gun was fired. At once, the wall-pieces and 
blunder-busses, which had been brought to 
rake them in the most vulnerable point, 
were discharged. As no such reception 
had been foreseen, the assailants were 



20 LirE OP PUTNAM. • 

thrown into the utmost disorder. Their 
terror and confusion were greatly increased 
by a well-directed and most destructive fire 
of the small arms. The larger pieces • )eiiig 
re-loaded, without annoyance, coniinued, 
alternately with the musketry, to make 
dreadful havoc, until the rout was com- 
pleted, and the enemy driven back to Ti- 
conderoga. in this action, one of the bark 
canoes contained twenty Indians, of whom 
fifteen were killed. Great numbers from 
other boats, both of French and Indians, 
were seen to fiill overboard : but the ac- 
count of their total loss could never be as- 
certained. Rogers and Putnam had but 
one man killed and two slightly wounded. 
They now landed on the point, and having 
refreshed their men at leisure, returned in 
'good order to the British camp. 

Soon after these rencounters, a singular 
kind of race was run by our nimble-footed 
Provincial and an active young Frencman. 
"The liberty of each was l)y turns at stake. 
General Webb, wanting a prisoner for the 
sake of intelligence, sent Captain Putnam 
with five men to procure one. The Gap- 
tain concealed himself near the road which 
leads from Ticonderoga to the Ovens. — 
His men seemed fond of showing them- 
selves, which unsoldierlike conduct he pro- 
iiibited with the severest reprehension.— 



LIFE OF PUTx\AM. 21 

This rebuke they imputed to unnecessary 
fear. The observation is as true as vulgar, 
that persons distinguishable for temerity 
v^hen there is no apparent danger, are gen- 
erally poltroons whenever danger approach- 
es. They had not lain long in the high 
grass, before a Frenchman and an Indian 
pjissed — the Indian was considerably in ad- 
vance. As soon as the former had gone 
by, Putnam, relying on the fidelity of his 
men, sprang up, ran, and ordered them to 
follow. After running about thirty rods, 
he seized the Frenchman by the shoulders 
and forced him to surrender : but his pris- 
oner looking round, perceiving no other 
enemy, and knowing the Indian would be 
ready in a moment to assist him, began to 
make an obstinate resistance. Putnam, 
finding himself betrayed by his men into a 
perilous dilemma, let go his hold, stepped 
back and snasped his piece, which was lev- 
elled at the Frenchniairs breast. It missed 
fire. Upon this he thought it most prudent 
to retreat. The Frenchman, in turn, cha- 
sed him back to his men, who at last raised 
themselves from the grass ; which his pur- 
suer espying in good time for himself, made 
his escape. Putnam, mortified that these 
men had frustrated his success, dismissed 
them with disgrace ; and, not long after, 
accomplished his object. 



22 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

Nothing worthy of remark happened du- 
ring this campaign except the loss of Os- 
wego. That fort, which had been built by 
General Shirley to protect the peltry trade, 
cover the country on the Mohawk River, 
and facilitate an invasion of Canada by 
Frontenac and Niagara, fell into the hands 
of the enemy, with a garrison of sixteen 
hundred men, and one hundred pieces of 
cannon. 

The active services of Captain Putnam 
on every occasion attracted the admiration 
of the public, and induced the legislature of 
Connecticut to promote him to a majority 
in 1757. 

Lord Louden was then commander-in- 
chief of the British forces in America. — 
The expedition against Crown Point, 
which, from the commencement of hostili- 
ties, had been in contemplation, seemed to 
give place to a more important operation 
that was meditated against Louisburg — 
But the arrival of the Brest squadron at 
that place prevented the attempt : and the 
loss of Fort William Henry served to class 
this with the two former unsuccessful cam- 
paigns. It was rumored, and partially- 
credited at the time, that General Webb, 
who commanded in the northern depart- 
ment, had early intimation of the move^ 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 23 

ment of the French army, and might have 
effectually succored the garrison. 

A few days before the siege, Major Put- 
nam, with two hundred men, escorted 
General V\'ebb from Fort William Henry. 

The object was to examine the state of 
this fortification, which stood at the south- 
ern extremity of Lake George. Several 
abortive attempts having been made by 
Major Rogers and others in the night sea- 
son. Major Putnam proposed to go down 
the lake in open daylight, land at ISortb- 
west Bay, and tarry on shore until he 
could make satisfactory discovery of the 
enemy's actual situation at Ticonderoga 
and the adjacent posts. The plan (which 
he suggested) of landing with only five 
men, sending back the boats, to prevent de- 
tection, was deemed too hazardous by the 
general. At length, however, he was per- 
mitted to proceed with eighteen volunteers 
in three whale boats : but before he arrived 
at Northwest Bay he discovered a body of 
men on an island. Immediately upon this, 
he left two boats to fish at a distance, that 
they might not occasion an alarm, and re- 
turned himself with the information. The 
general, seeing him rowing back with great 
velocity in a single boat, concluded the oth- 
ers were captured, and sent a skiff with or- 
ders for him alone to come on shore. Af- 



24 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

ter advising the general of the circumstan- 
ces, he urged the expediency of returning 
to make further discoveries, and bring off 
the boats. Leave was reluctantly given. 
He found his people, and passing still on- 
ward, discoverd (by the aid of a good per- 
spective glass) a large army in motion. — 
By this time several of the advanced ca- 
noes had nearly surrounded him, but, by 
the swiftness of his whaleboats, he escaped 
through the midst of them. On his re- 
turn, he informed the general minutely of all 
he had seen, and intimated his conviction 
that the expedition must obviously be des- 
tined against Fort William Henry. That 
commander, strictly enjoining silence on 
the subject, directed him to put his men 
under an oath of secrecy, and to prepare 
without loss of time, to return to the head 
quarters of the army. Major Putnam ob- 
served "he hoped his excellency did not in- 
tend to neglect so fair an opportunity of 
giving battle, should the enemy presume to 
land." " What do you think* we should 
do here V' replied the general. According- 
ly, the next day he returned, and the day 
after Co!onel Monro was ordered from 
Fort Edward, with his regiment, to rein- 
force the garrison. That officer took with 
liim all his rich baggage and camp equip- 
age, notwithstanding Major Putnam's ad- 



LIFF/OF PUTNAM. 25 

/ice to the contrary. The day following 
his arrival, the enemy landed and besieged 
the place. 

In the month of August, five hundred 
men were employed, under the orders of 
Majors Rogers and Putnam, to watch the 
motions of the enemy near Ticonderoga. 
At {South Bay they separated the party in- 
to two equal divisions, and Rogers took a 
position on Wood Creek, twelve miles 
distant from Putnam. Upon being, some 
time afterwards, discovered, they formed a 
re-union, and concerted measures for re- 
turning to Fort Edward. As soon as the 
heavy dew, which had fallen the preced- 
ing night, would permit, the detachment 
moved in one body, Putnam being in front, 
D'Ell in the centre, and Rogers in the rear. 
The impervious growth of shrubs and un- 
derbrush that had sprung up, where the 
land had been partially cleared some years 
before, occasioned this change in the order 
of march. At the moment of moving, the 
famous French partisan, Molang, who had 
been sent with five hundred men to inter- 
cept our party, was not more than one 
mile and a half distant from them. Hav- 
ing heard the firing, he hastened to lay an 
ambuscade precisely in that part of the 
wood most favorable to his project. Ma- 
jor JPutnam was just emerging from the 
3 



26 LIFE CF PUTNAM. 

thicket into the common forest, when the 
enemy rose, and with discordant yells and 
whoops, commenced an attack upon the 
right of his division. Surprised, but undis- 
mayed, Putnam halted, returned the fire, 
and passed the word for the other divisions 
to advance for his support. D'E-U came. — 
The action, though widely scattered, and 
principally fought between man and man, 
soon grew general and intensely warm. It 
would be as difficult as useless to describe 
this irregular and ferocious mode of fight- 
ing. Rogers came not up : but, as he de- 
clared afterwards, formed a circular file, 
between our party and Wood Creek, to 
prevent their being taken in rear, or enfila- 
ded. Successful as he commonly was, his 
conduct did not always pass w^ithout an 
unfavorable imputation. Notwithstanding 
it was a current saying in the camp, "that 
Rogers always sent^ but Putnam led his 
men to action ;" yet, in justice, it ought 
to be remarked here, that the latter has nev- 
er been known, in relating the story of 
this day's disaster, to affix any stigma up- 
on the conduct of the former. 

Major Putnam, perceiving it would be 
impracticable to cross the creek, deter- 
mined to maintain his ground. Inspired 
by his example, the officers and men be- 
haved with great bravery : sometimes they 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 27 

fought aggregately in open view, and some- 
times individually under cover ; taking aim 
from behind the bodies of trees, and acting 
in a manner independent of each other. — 
For himself, having discharged his fusee 
several times, at length it missed fire, while 
the muzzle was pressed against the breast 
of a large and well proportioned savage. 
This warrior^ availing himself of the inde- 
fensible attitude of his adversary, with a 
tremendous wharwhoop sprang forward, 
with his lifted hatchet, and compelled him 
to surrender : and having disarmed and 
bound him fast to a tree, returned to the 
battle. 

The intrepid captains D'Ell and Harman, 
who now commanded, were forced to give 
ground for a little distance : the savages, 
conceiving this to be the certain harbinger 
of victory, rushed impetuously on with 
dreadful and redoubled cries. But our two 
partisans, collecting a handful of brave men, 
gave the pursuers so warm a reception as 
to oblige them, in turn, to retreat a little 
beyond the spot at which the action had 
commenced. Here they made a stand. — 
This change of ground occasioned the tree 
to which Putnam was tied, to be directly 
between the fire of the two parties. Hu- 
man imagination can hardly figure to itself 
a more deplorable situation. The balls 



28 • LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

flew incessantly from either side, many 
struck the tree, while some passed through 
the sleeves and skirts of his coat. In ihis 
state of jeopardy, unable to move his body, 
to stir his limbs, or even to incline his head, 
he remained more than an liour. So equally 
balanced and so obstinate was the fight ! 
At one moment, while the battle swerved 
in favor of the enemy, a young savage 
chose an odd way of discovering his hu- 
mor. He found Putnam bound. He 
might have despatched him at a blow. — 
But he loved better to excite the terrors of 
the prisoner, by hurling a tomahawk at his 
head, or rather it should seem his object 
was to see how near he could throw it with- 
out touching him — the weapon stuck in the 
tree a number of times at a hair's breadth 
distance from the mark. When the Indian 
had finished his amusement, a French Bas- 
officer (a much more inveterate savage by 
nature, though descended from so humane 
and polished a nation) perceiving Putnam, 
came up to him, and, leveling a fusee with- 
in a foot of his breast, attempted to dis- 
charge it ; it missed fire — ineffectually, did 
the intended victim solicit the treatment 
due to his situation, by repeating, that he 
was a prisoner of war. The degenerate 
Frenchman did not understand the lan- 
guage of honor or nature ; deaf to their 



LIFE OP PUTNAM. 29 

voice, and deaf to sensibility, he violently 
and repeatedly pushed the muzzle of his 
gun against Putnam's ribs, and finally gave 
him a cruel blow on the jaw with the butt 
of his piece. After this dastardly deed, he 
left him. 

At length the active intrepidity of D'Ell 
and Harman,'^ seconded by the persevering 
valor, of their followers, prevailed. They 
drove from the field the enemy, who left 
about 90 dead behind them. As they were 
retiring, Putnam was untied by the Indian 
who had made him prisoner, and whom he 
afterwards called master. Eaving been 
conducted for some distance from the place 
of action, he was stripped of his coat, vest^ 
stockings, and shoes ; loaded with as many 
of the packs of the wounded as could be 
piled upon him ; strongly pinioned, and his 
waists tied as closely together as they could 
be pulled with a cord. After he had 
marched, through no pleasant paths, in this 
painful manner, for many a tedious mile, 
the party (who were excessively fatigued) 
halted to breathe. His hands were now 
immoderately swelled from the tightness of 
the ligature : and the pain had become in- 
tolerable. His feet were so much scratch- 

* This worthy ofBcer is still living at Marlborough, 
in the state of Massachusetts. 

3* 



30 LIFE OF PUTIVAM* 

ed that the blood dropped fast from them. 
Exhausted with bearing a burden above 
his strength, and frantic with torments ex- 
quisite beyond endurance, he entreated the 
Irish interpreter to implore, as the last and 
only grace he desired of the savges, that 
they would knock him on the head and 
take his scalp at once, or loose his hands. 
A French officer, instantly interposing, or- 
dered his hands to be unbound, and some 
of the packs to be taken off. By this time 
the Indian who captured him, and had been 
absent with the wounded, coming up, gave 
him a pair of moccasins ; and expressed 
great indignation at the unworthy treat- 
ment his prisoner had suffered. 

That savage chief again returned to the 
care of the wounded, and the Indians, about 
two hundred in number, went before the 
rest of the party to the place where the 
whole were, that night, to encamp. They 
took with them Major Putnam, on whom 
(besides innumerable other outrages) they 
had the barbarity to inflict a deep wound 
with a tomahawk, in the left cheek. His 
sufferings were in this place to be consnrn- 
mated. A scene of horror, infinitely great- 
er than had ever met his eyes before, wa& 
now preparing. It was determined to 
roast him alive. For this purpose they led 
him into a dark forest, stripped him nakedr 



LlFr OF 1>0 TNAM. SI 

boUhd him to a tree, and piled dry brushy 
with other fuel, at a small distance in a cir- 
cle round him. They accompanied theii' 
labors as if for his funeral dirge, with 
screams and sounds inimitable but by sav 
age voices. Then they set the piles on 
fire. A sudden shower dampened the ri^ 
sing flame. Still they strove to kindle il^ 
until, at last, the blaze ran fiercely round 
the circle. Major Putnam soon began to 
feel the scorching heat. His hands were 
so tied that he could move his body. He 
often shifted sides as the fire approached^ 
This sight, at the very idea of which all 
but savages must shudder, afforded the 
highest diversion to his inhuman torment- 
ors, who demonstrated the delirium of their 
joy by correspondent yells, dances and ges^ 
ticulations. He saw clearly that his final 
hour was inevitably come. He S';mmon^d 
all his resolution, and composed his mind 
as far as the circumstances could admit, to 
bid an eternal farev\ell to all he held most 
dear. To quit the world would scarcely 
have cost a single pang, but for the idea of 
home, but for the remembrance of donies- 
tic endearments, of the affectionate partner 
of his soul, and of their beloved offspring. 
His thought was ultimately fixed on a hap- 
pier state of exisience- beyond the tortures 
lie WAS beginning to endure* The bitter^ 



32 Lli'E OF PUTNAM. 

ness of death, even of that death which is 
accompanied with the keenest agonies, was 
in a manner, past— nature, with a feeble 
struggle, was quitting its last hold on sub- 
lunary things — when a French officer 
rushed through the crowd, opened a way 
by scattering the burning brands, and un- 
bound the victim. It was Molang himself 
— to whom a savage, unwilling to see an- 
other human sacrifice immolated, had run 
and communicated the tidings. The com- 
mandant spurned and severely reprimand- 
ed the barbarians, whose nocturnal powwas 
and hellish orgies he suddenly ended. Put- 
nam did not want for feeling or gratitude. 
The French commander, fearing to trust 
him alone with them, remained until he 
could deliver him in safety into the hands 
of his master. 

The savage approached his prisoner 
kindly, and seemed to treat him with par- 
ticular affection He offered him some 
hard biscuit, but finding that he could not 
chew them, on account of the blow he had 
received from the PVenchman, this more 
humane savage soaked some of the biscuit 
and made him suck the pulp-like part of it. 
Determined, however, not to lose his cap- 
tive, (the refreshment being finished,) he 
took the moccasins from his feet and tied 
them to one of his wrists ; then directing 



LIFE OF PUTNAM- 33 

him to lie down on his back upon the bare 
ground, he stretched one arm to its full 
length, and bound it fast to a young tree; 
the other arm was extended and bound in 
the same manner — his legs were stretched 
apart and fastened to two sapHngs. Then 
a number of tall but slender poles were cut 
down : which, with some long bushes, 
were laid across his body from head to foot : 
on each side lay as many Indians as could 
conveniently find lodging, in order to pre- 
vent the possibility of his escape. In this 
disagreeable and painful posture he remain- 
ed until morning. During this night, the 
longest and most dreary conceivable, our 
hero used to relate thai he felt a ray of 
cheerfulness come casually across his mind, 
and could not even refrain from smiling, 
when he reflected on this ludicrous group 
for a painter, of which he himself was the 
principal figure. 

The next day he was allowed his blanket 
and moccasins, and permitted to march 
without carrying any pack, or receiving 
any insult. To allay his extreme hunger, 
a little bear's meat was given, which he 
sucked through his teeth. At night, the 
party arrived at Ticonderoga, and the pris- 
oner was placed under the care of a 
French guard. The savages, who had 
been prevented from glutting their diaboli- 



34 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

cal thirst for biood, took other opportuni- 
ties of manifesting their malevolence for the 
disappointment, b}^ horrid grimaces and 
angry gestures, but they were suffered no 
more to offer violence or personal indignity 
to him. 

After having been examined by the Mar- 
quis de Montcalm, Major Putnam was 
conducted to Montreal by a French officer, 
who treated him with the greatest indul- 
gence and humanity. 

At this place were several prisoners. — 
Colonel Peler Schuyler, remarkable for his 
philanthropy, generosity, and friendship, 
was of the number. No sooner had he 
heard of Major Putnam's arrival, than he 
went to the Interpreter's quarters, and in- 
quired, whether he had a provincial major in 
his custody ? He found Major Putnam in 
a comfortless condition— without hat, waist- 
coat, or hose — the remnant of his clothing 
miserabl}^ dirty, and ragged — his beard 
long and squahd — his legs torn by thorns 
and briars — his face gashed with wounds 
and swollen with bruises. Colonel Schuy- 
ler, irritated beyond all sufferance at such 
a sight, could scarcely restrain his speech 
within limits consistent with the prudence 
of a prisoner, and the meekness of a chris- 
*tian. Major Putnam was immediately 
treated according to his rank, clothed in a 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 35 

decent manner, and supplied with money, 
by that liberal and sympathetic patron of 
the distressed. 

The capture of Frontenack by General 
Bradstreet, afforded occasion for an ex- 
change of prisoners : Colonel Schnyler 
was comprehended in the cartel. A gen- 
erous spirit can never be satisfied with im- 
posing tasks for its generosity to accom- 
plish. Apprehensive, if it should be known 
that Putnam was a distinguished partisan, 
his liberation might be retarded, and know- 
ing that there were officers, who, from the 
length of their captivity, had a claim of 
priority to exchange ; he had, by his hap- 
py address, induced the governor to offer, 
that whatever officer he might think prop- 
er to nominate, should be included in the 
present cartel. With great politeness in 
manner, but seeming indifference as to ob- 
ject, he expressed his warmest acknowl- 
edgements to the governor, and said : 
''There is an old man here, who is a pro- 
vincial major, and wishes to be at home 
with his wife and children. He can do no 
good here, or any where else : 1 can be- 
lieve your excellency had better keep some 
of the young men, who have no wife or 
children to care for, and let the old fellow 
ffo home with me." This justifiable finesse 
had the desired effect. 



36 LfFE OF PUTNAM. 

We now arrive at the period, when the 
prowess of Britian, victorious alike by sea 
and land, in the new and in the old world 
had elevated her name to the zenith of na- 
tional glory. The conquest of Quebec 
opened the way for the total reduction of 
Canada. On the side of the Lakes, Am- 
herst having captin*ed the posts Ticondero- 
g;i and Crown-Point, applied himself to 
strengthen the latter. Putnam, who had 
been raised to the rank of lieutenant-colo- 
nel, and present at these operations, was 
employed the remainder of this and some 
part of the succeeding season, in superin- 
tending the parties which were detached to 
procure timber and other materials for the 
fortification. 

In 1760, General Amherst, a sagacious, 
humane, and experience! commander, 
planned the termination of the war in Can- 
ada, l)y a bloodless conquest. For this 
purpose, three armies were destined to co- 
operate by different routes against Montre- 
al, the only remaining place of strength the 
enemy held in that country. The corps 
formerly commanded by General Wolfe, 
now General Murray, was ordered to as- 
cend the river St. Lawrence ; another (un- 
der Col. Haviland) to penetrate by the Isle 
Aux Noix ; and the third, consisting of 
about ten thousand men, commanded by 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 37 

the general himself, after passing up the 
Mohawk river, and taking its course by 
(he Lake Ontario, was to form a junction 
by falling down the St. Lawrence- In this 
progress more than one occasion presented 
itself to manifest the intrepidity and soldier- 
ship of Lieutenant Colonel Putnam. Two 
armed vessels obstructed the passage and 
prevented the attack on Oswegatchie. — 
rutnam, with 1000 men, in 50 batteaux, 
undertook to board them. This dauntless 
officer, ever sparing of the blood of others, 
as prodigal of his own, to accomplish it 
with the less loss, put himself (with a cho- 
sen crew, a beetle and wedges) in the van, 
with a design to wedge the rudders, so that 
the vessels should not be able to turn their 
broadsides, or perl'orm any other manoeu- 
vre. All the men in his little fleet were or- 
dered to strip to their waistcoats, and ad- 
vance at the same time. He promised, if 
he lived, to join and show them the way 
up the sides. Animated by so daring an 
example, they moved swiftly, in profound 
stillness, as to certain victory or death. 
The people on board the ships, beholding 
the good countenance with which they ap- 
proached, ran one of the vessels on shore, 
and struck the colors of the other. Had it 
not been for the dastardly conduct of the 
ship's company, in the latter, who compel- 
4 



38 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

led the captain to haul down his ensign, he 
would have given the assailants a bloody 
receplion : for the vessels were w^ell provi- 
ded with spears, nettings, and every cus- 
tomary instrument of annoyance as well as 
defence. 

It now remained to attack the fortress, 
which stood on an island, and seemed to 
have been rendered inaccessible bv a high 
abattis of black ash, that every where pro- 
jected over tiie water. Lieutenant Colonel 
Putnam proposed a mode of attack, and 
offered his services to carry it into effect. 
Ilie general approved the proposal. The 
sides of each boat were surrounded with 
fascines (musket proof)which covered the 
men complotfly. A wide plank, twenty 
feet in length, w^as then fitted to every boat 
in such a manner, by having an angular 
piece savvied from one extremity, that, 
when fastened by ropes on both sides of 
the bow, it might be raised or lowered at 
pleasure. The design was, that the plank 
should be held erect, while the oarsman 
forced the bow with the utmost exertion 
against the abattis ; and that, afterwards, 
being dropped on the pointed brush, it 
should serve as a kind of bridge to assist 
the men in passing over them. Lieutenant 
Colonel Putnam, having made his disposi- 
tions to attempt the escalade in many pla- 



LIFE OF PUTX\M. 39 

ces at the same moment, advanced with 
his boats in admirable order. The g-arrison 
perceiving these extraordinary and unex- 
pected machines, waited not the assault, 
but capitulated. Lieutenant Colonel Put- 
nam was particularly honored by General 
Amherst, for his ingenuity in this invention, 
and promptitude in its execution. The 
three armies arrived at Montreal, within 
two days of each other ; and the conquest 
of Canada become complete without the 
loss of a single drop of blood. 

At no great distance from Montreal, 
is the savage village, called Cochnavvaga. 
Here our partisan found the Indian chief 
who had formerly made him prisoner. — 
That Indian was highly delighted to see 
his old acquaintance, whom he entertained 
in his own well-built stone house, with 
great friendsiiip and hospitality ; while his 
guest did not discover less satisfaction in 
an opportunity of shaking the brave sav- 
age by the hand, and proffering him pro- 
tection in this reverse of his military for- 
tunes. 

When the belligerent powers were con- 
siderably exhausted, a rupture took place 
between Great Britian and Spain, in the 
month of January, 1762, and an expedition 
was formed that campaign, under l^ord 
Albemarle, against the Havanna. 



40 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

A body of provincials, composed of five 
hundred men from the Jerseys, eight hun- 
dred from New York, and one thousand 
from Connecticut, joined his lordship. — 
Gen. Lyman, who raised the regiment of 
one thousand men in Connecticut, being the 
senior officer, commanded the whole : of 
course, the im mediate command of his 
regiment devolved upon Putnam. The 
fleet that carried these troops sailed from 
New York, and arrived safely on the coast 
of Cuba. T here a terrible storm arose, 
and the transport in which Lieutenant Col- 
onel Putnam had embarked with five hun- 
dred men, was wrecked on a rift of craggy 
rocks. The weather was so tempestuous, 
and the surf, which ran mountain-high, 
dashed with such violence against the ship, 
that the most experienced seamen expect- 
ed it would soon part asunder. The rest 
of the fleet, so far from being able to afiford 
assistance, v/ith difficulty rode out the gale. 
Jn this dep orable situation, as the only ex- 
pedient by which they could be saved, 
strict order was maintained, and all tiiose 
people who best understood the use of 
tools, instantly employed in constructing 
rafts from spars, plank, and whatever other 
materi;ds could be, procured- There hap- 
pened to be on board a large quantity of 
strong cords, (the same that are used in 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 41 

the whale fishery,) which, bein^ fastened 
to the raits, alter the first had with incon- 
ecivable hazard reached the shore, were of 
infinite service in preventing the others 
from driving out to sea, as also in dragging 
them athwart the billows, to the beach : by 
which means, every man was finally saved. 
With the same presence of mind to take 
advantage of circumstances, and the same 
precaution to prevent confusion, on similar 
occasions, how many valuable hves, prema- 
turely lost, might have been preserved as 
blessings to their families, their friends and 
their country i As soon as all were land- 
ed. Lieutenant Colonel Putnam fortified his 
camp, that he might not be exposed to in- 
sult from the inhabitants of the neighboring 
districts, or from chose of Carthagena, who 
were but twenty-four miles distant. Here 
the party remained unmolested several 
days, until the storm had so much abated 
as to permit the convoy to take them off. 
They soon joined the troops betbre the lia- 
vanna, who, having been several weeks in 
that unhealthy climate, already began to 
grow extremely sickly. 

The opportune arrival of the provincial 
reinforcement, in perfect health, coLitribu- 
ted not a little to forward the works, and 
hasten the reduction of that important 
place. But the provincials suffered so mis- 
4* 



42 ttFE of t>U'fNAiVi. 

erably by sickness, afterwards, that Vdfy 
few ever returned to their native land 
again. 

Although a general peace among Euro- 
pean powers was ratified in 1763, yet the 
savages, on our western frontiers, still con^ 
tinned their hostilities. After they had ta^ 
ken several posts, General Bradsireet was 
sent in 1764 wilh an army against them* 
Colonel Putnam, then, for the first time, 
appointed to the command of a regiment^ 
was on the expedition ; as was the Indian 
chief, (whom 1 have several times had oc- 
casion to mention as his capturer,) at the 
head of one hundred Cochnawnga warri^ 
ors. Before General Bradstreet reached 
Detroit, which the savages invested, cap- 
lain D'Klh the faithful friend and intrepid 
fellow -soldier of Colonel Putnam, had been 
slain in a desperate sally. He having been 
detached with five hundred men, in 1763, 
by General Amherst, to raise the siege* 
found means of throwing the succor into 
the fort. But the garrison (commanded by 
Major Gladwine, a brave and sensible offi- 
cer) had been so much weakened, by the 
lurking and insidious mode of war practised 
by the savages, that not a man could be 
spared to co-operate in an attack upon 
them. The commandant would even have 
dissuaded captain D'Ell from the attempt^ 



LlFfi OP PUTNAM, 4^ 

dti accbunt of the great disparity in iiuni- 
bors ; but the latter, relying on the disci- 
pline and courage of his men, replied, "God 
forbid that 1 should "ever disobey the or^ 
ders of my general," and immediately dis- 
posed them for action. Jt was obstinate 
and bloody. But the vastly superior num- 
ber of the savages, enabled them to enclose 
captain D'EIPs party on every side, anci 
compelled him, tinally, to fight his way, in 
retreating from one stone house to another. 
Having halted to breathe a moment, he' 
saw one of his bravest sergeants lying at a 
small distance, wounded throtigh the thighj 
^nd wallowing in his blood. Whereupon 
he desit-ed some of the men to run and 
bring the sergeant to the house, but they 
declined it. Then declaring, '-that he nev- 
er would leave so brave a soldier in the 
field to be tortured by the savages,'' he ran 
and endeavored to help him up — at the in* 
stant, a volley of shot dropped them both 
dead together. The party continued re* 
treating, from house to house, until they 
regained the fort ; where it was found, the 
conflict had been so sharp, and lasted so 
long, that only fifty men remained alive of 
the five hundred who had salhed. 

Upon the arrival of General Bradstreet, 
the savages saw that all further efforts, in 
arms, would be in vain, and, accordinglyf 



44 LIFtil OP PUTNAM. 

after many fallacious proposals for a peace, 
and frequent tergiversations in the negoti- 
ation, they conchidei! a treaty, which end- 
ed the war in America. 

Colonel Putnam, at the expiration of ten 
years fro in his first receiving a commission, 
after having seen as much service, endured 
as many hardships, encountered as many 
dangers, and acquired as many laurels, as 
any officer of his rank, with great satisfac- 
tion laid aside his uniform and returned to 
his plough. The various and uncommon 
scenes of war in which he had acted a re- 
spectable part ; his intercourse with the 
world, and intimacy with some of the first 
characters in the army, joined with occa- 
sional reading, had not only brought into 
view whatever talents he possessed from 
nature, but, at the same time, had extend- 
ed his knowledge and polished his man- 
ners to a considerable degree. Not having 
become inflated with pride or forgetful of 
his old connexions, he had the good will of 
his fe low-citizens. No character stood 
fairer in public eye for integrity, bravery, 
and patriotism. He was employed in sev- 
eral offices in his own town, and not unfre- 
quently elected to represent it in the gener- 
al assembly. The year after his return to 
private life, the mind of men were strangely 
iagitated, by an attempt of the British par- 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 45 

liament to introduce the memorable Stamp 
Act in A merica. This germe policy, whose 
growth was repressed by the moderate 
temperature in which it was kept by some 
administrations, did not fully disclose its 
fruit until nearly eleven years afterwards. 
On the twenty-second day of March, 
1765, the Stamp Act received the royal as- 
sent. It was to take place in America on 
the first day of November following. 1 his 
innovation spread a sudden and universal 
alarm. The political pulse in the province, 
from Maine to Georgia^ throbbed in sym- 
pathy. The assemblies, in most of these 
colonies, that they might oppose it legally 
and in concert, appointed delegates to con- 
fer together on the subject. 'J his first con- 
gress met, early in October, at New York. 
They agreed upon a declaration of rights 
and grievances of the colonists : together 
with separate addresses to the king, lords, 
and commons of Great Britain. In the 
mean time the people had determined, in 
order to prevent the stamped paper from 
being distributed, that the stamp masters 
should not enter on the execution of their 
office. That appointment, in Connecticut, 
had been conferred upon Mr. Jngersol, a 
very dignified, sensible, and learned native 
of the colony, who, upon being solicited to 
resign, did not in the first instance, give a 



46 LIFE OF PUTiVAM. 

satisrartory answer. In consequence of 
which, a great number of the substantial 
yeomanry, on horseback, furnished with 
provisions for themselves, and provender 
for their horses, assembled in the eastern 
countries, and began their march for New 
Haven, to receive the resignation of Mr. 
innrersol. A junction with another body 
was to have been formed in Branford. — 
But having learned at Hartford, that Mr. 
Ingersol would be in town the next day to 
claim protection from the assembly, they 
took quarters there, and kept out patrols 
during the whole night, to prevent his ar- 
rival without their knowdedge. The suc- 
ceeding morning they resumed their march 
and met Mr. Ingersol in Wethersfield. — 
They told him their business, and he, after 
some little hesitation, mounted on a table, 
and read his resignation. That finished, 
the multitude desired him to cry out, "lib- 
erty and property,'' three times ; which he 
did, and was answered by three loud huz- 
zas. He then dined with some of the 
principal men at a tavern, by whom he 
was treated with great politeness, and af- 
terwards was escorted by about tive hun- 
dred horse to Hartford, where he again 
read his resignation amidst the unbounded 
acclamations of the people. 1 have chosen 
to style this collection the yeomanry, the 



LIFE OF PI T-NAftl. 47 

inultitude, or the people^ because 1 could 
not make use of the English word moh^ 
(which generally signifies a disorderly con- 
currence of the rabble) without conveying 
an erroneous idea. It is scarcely necessa- 
ry to add, that the people, their objects be- 
ing effected, without offering disturbance, 
dispersed to their homes. 

Colmel Putnam, who instigated the peo- 
ple to these measures, was prevented from 
attending by accident. But he was depu- 
ted soon after, with two other gentlemen 
to wait on Governor Fitch, on the same 
subject. The questions of the governor, 
and answers of Putnam, will serve to indi- 
cate the spirit of the times. After some 
conversation, the governor asked ''What 
shall 1 do, if the stamped paper should be 
sent to me by the king's authorily " Put- 
nam replied, ''Lock it up until we shall vis- 
it you again.'' "And what will you do 
then?*' "We shall expect you to give us 
the key of the room, in which it is deposit- 
ed ; and if you think fit, in order to screen 
yourself from blame, you may forewarn us 
upon our peril not to enter the room." — 
And what will you do afterwards?" — 
"Send it safely back again." But if I 
should refuse admission?" "In such a 
case, your house will be levelled with the 
dust in five minutes." It was supposed 



48 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

that a report of this conversation, was one 
reason why the stamped paper was never 
sent from iN^ew York to Connecticut. 

Such unanimity in the provincial assem- 
bUes, and decision in the yeomanry, carried 
beyond the Atlantic a conviction of the in- 
expediency of attempting to enforce the 
new revenue system. The stamp act be- 
ing repealed, and the measures in a man- 
ner quieted, Colonel Putnam continued to 
labor with his own hands at farming, with- 
out interruption, except (for a little time) 
by the loss of the first joint of his right 
thumb from one accident, and the com- 
pound fracture of his right thigh from an- 
other — that thigh being nmdered nearly an 
inch shorter than the left, occasioned him 
ever after to limp in his walk. 

In speaking of the troubles that ensued, 
1 not only omit to say any thing on the ob- 
noxious claim asserted in the British decla- 
ratory act, the continuation of the duty on 
tea, the attempt to obtrude that article up- 
on the Americans, the abortion of this pro- 
ject, the Boston port bill, the alteration of 
the charter of Massachusetts, and other 
topics of uni\'«ersal notoriety ; but even 
waive all discussions of irritations on one 
part, and supplications on the other, which 
preceded the wur between Great Britain 
•and Jier colonies on this continent. It will 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 49 

ever be acknowledged by those wlio were 
best acquainted with facts, and it should be 
made known to posterity, that that king of 
England had not, in his extensive domin- 
ions, subjects more loyal, more dutiful, or 
more zealous for his glory, than the Amer- 
icans ; and that nothing short of a melan- 
choly persuasion, that the "measures which 
for many years had been systematically 
pursued by his ministers, were calculated 
to subvert their constitutions," could have 
dissolved their powerful attachment to that 
kingdom, which they fondly called their 
parent country. Here, without digression, 
to develope the cause, or describe ihe pro- 
gress, it may suffice to observe, the dispute 
now verged precipitately to an awful cri- 
sis. Most considerate men foresaw it 
would terminate in blood. But, rather than 
suffer the chains (which they believed in 
preparation) to be riveted, they nobly de- 
termined to sacrifice their lives. In vain 
did they deprecate the infatuation of those 
transatlantic counsels which drove them to 
deeds of desperation. Convinced of the 
rectitude of their cause, and doubtful of the 
issue, they felt the most painful solicitude 
for the fate of their country, on contempla- 
ting the superior strength of the nation with 
which it was to contend. America, thinly 
inhabited, under thirteen distinct colonial 
5 



50 LIFE OF rUTNAMc 

governments, could have little hope of suc- 
cess, but from the protection of Providence, 
and the unconquerable spirit of freedom 
which pervaded the mass of the people : it 
is true, since the peace, she had surprising- 
ly increased in w^ealth and population — but 
the resources of Britain almost exceeded 
credibility or conception. It is not won- 
derful then, that some good citizens, of 
weaker nerves, recoiled at the prospect ; 
while others, who had been officers in the 
late war, or who had witnessed, by travel- 
ling, the force of Great Britain, stood aloof. 
All eyes were now turned to find the 
men, who possessed of mihtary experience, 
would dare, in the approaching hour of se- 
verest trial, to lead their undisciphned fel- 
low-citizens to battle — for none were so 
stupid as not to comprehend thai want of 
success would have involved the leaders in 
the punishment of rebellion. Putnam was 
among the first and most conspicuous who 
stepped forth. Although the Americans 
had been, by many who wished their sub- 
jugation, indiscreetly as indiscriminately 
stigmatized with imputations of cowardice 
— he felt, he knew for himself, he was no 
coward ; and from what he had seen and 
known, he believed that his countrymen, 
driven to the extremity of defending their 
rights by arms, would find no difficulty in 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 51 

wiping away the ungenerous aspersion. — 
As he happened to be often at Boston, he 
held many conversations on these subjects 
with General Gage, the British command- 
er-in-chief, Lord Percy, Colonel Sheriff, 
Colonel Small, and many officers with 
whom he had formerly served, who were 
now at the head quarters. Being often 
questioned "in case the dispute should pro- 
ceed to hostilities, what part he would re- 
ally take V' He always answered, "with 
his country, and that, let whatever might 
happen, he was prepared to abide the con- 
sequence.'' Being interrogated "whether 
he, who had been a witness to the prowess 
and victories of the British fleets and ar- 
mies, did not think them equal to the con- 
quest of a country which was not the own- 
er of a single ship, regiment, or magazine ?" 
He rejoined, that "he could only say, jus- 
tice would be on our side, and the event 
with Providence : but that he had calcula- 
ted, if it required six years for the com- 
bined forces of England and her colonies to 
conquer such a feeble country as Canada ; 
it would at least, take a very long time for 
England alone to overcome her own wide- 
ly extended colonies, which were much 
stronger than Canada : That when men 
fought for every thing dear; in what they 
believed to be the most sacred of all cau- 



53 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

ses, and in their own native land, they 
would have great advantages over their en- 
emies, who were not in [he same situation ; 
and that, having taken into view all cir- 
cumstances, for his own part, he fully be- 
lieved that America would not be so easily 
conquered by England, as those gentlemen 
seemed to expect." Being once, in partic- 
ular, asked, "whether he did not seriously 
believe that a well appointed British army 
of five thousand veterans could march 
through the whole continent of America?" 
He replied briskly, — "no doubt ; if they be- 
haved civilly and paid well for every thing 
they wanted — but " — after a moment's 
pause, added — "if they should attempt it in 
a hostile manner, (though the American 
men were out of the question,) the women 
with their ladles and broomsticks, would 
knock them all on the head before they 
had got half way through." This was the 
tenor, our hero hath often told me, of these 
amicable interviews. And thus (as it com- 
monly happens in disputes about future 
events, which depend on opinion) they part- 
ed without conviction : no more to meet in 
a friendly manner, until after the appeal 
should have been made to heaven, and the 
issue confirmed by the sword. In the mean 
time, to provide against the worst contin- 
gency, the militia in the several colonies 



ttFE OF PUtr^AM. 53 

vva§ sedulously trained ; and those select 
companies, the flower of our youth, which 
were denominated minutemen, agreeably 
to the indication of their name, held them- 
selves in readiness to march at a moment's 
Warning. 

At lengih the fatal day arrived, when 
hostilities commenced. General Gage, in 
the evening of the I8th of April, 1776, de- 
tached from Boston the grenadiers and 
light infantry of the army, commanded by 
Lieutenant Colonel Smith, to destroy some 
military and other stores, deposited at Con- 
cord. 

About sunrise the next morning, the de- 
tachment, on marching into Lexington, 
fired upon a company of militia who had 
just re-assembled ; for having been alarm- 
ed late at night, with reports that the regu- 
lars were advancing to demolish the stores, 
they collected on their parade, and were 
dismissed with orders to re-assemble at 
beat of drum. It is established by the affi- 
davits of more than thirty persons who 
were present, that the first fire, which kil- 
led eight of the militia, then beginning to 
disperse, was given by the British, without 
provocaiion. The spark of war thus kin- 
dled, ran with unexampled rapidity, and 
raged with unwonted violence. To repel 
ihe aggression, the people of the bordering 
5* 



54 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

towns spontaneously rushed to arms, and 
poured their scattering shot from every 
convenient station upon the regulars ; vi^ho, 
after marching to Concord, and destroying 
the magazine, w^ould have found their re- 
treat intercepted, had they not been rein- 
forced by Lord Percy, with the battalion 
companies of three regiments, and a body 
of marines. Notwithstanding the junction, 
they were hard pushed, and pursued until 
they could find protection from their ^hips. 
Of the British, two hundred and eighty- 
three were killed, wounded, and taken. — 
The Americans had thirty-nine killed, nine- 
teen wounded, and two made prisoners. 

Nothing could exceed the celerity with 
which the intelligence flew every where, 
that blood had been shed by the British 
troops. The country, in motion, exhibited 
but one scene of hurry, preparation, and re- 
venge. Putnam, who was ploughing when 
he heard the news, left his plough in the 
middle of the field, unyoked his team, and 
without waiting to change his clothes, set 
off for the theatre of action ; but finding 
the British retreated to Boston, and invest- 
ed by a sufficient force to watch their 
movements, he came back to Connectiut, 
levied a regiment (under authority of the 
legislature) and speedily returned to Cam- 
bridge. He was now promoted to be a 



LIFE OF PUTNAM* 55 

major general on the provinciai staff, by 
his colony : and in a little time confirmed 
by congress, in the same rank, on .the con- 
tinental estah'ishment. 

Not long after this period, the British 
commander-in-chief found the means to 
convey a proposal privately to General Put- 
nam, that if he would relinquish the rebel 
party, he might rely on being made a ma- 
jor general on the British establishment, 
and receiving a great pecuniary compensa- 
tion for his services. General Putnam 
spurned at the offer : which, however, he 
thought prudent at that time to conceal 
from public notice- 
It could scarcely have been expected? 
but by those credulous patriots who were 
prone to believe whatever they ardently 
desired, that officers assembled from colo- 
nies distinct in their manners and prejudi- 
ces, selected from laborious occupations to 
command a heterogeneous crowd of their 
equals, compelled to be soldiers only by 
the spur of occasion, should long be able 
to preserve harmony among themselves, 
and subordination among their followers. 
As the fact would be a phenomenon, the 
idea was treated with mirth and mockery 
by the friends to the British government. 
Yet this unshaken embryo of a military 
xiorps, composed of militia, minutemen, vol- 



56 L\Pt 6P JPUtNAM. 

unteers and levies, with a biirlljsc^iie ap- 
pearance of multiformity in arms, accoutre- 
ments, clothing, and conduct, at last grew 
into a regular army---an army, which hav- 
ing vindicated the rights of human nature 
and establised the independence of a new 
empire, merited and obtained the glorious 
distinction of the patriotic army — the pat- 
riotic army whose praises for their forti- 
tude in adversity, bravery in battle, moder- 
ation in conquest, perseverance in support- 
ing the cruel extremities of hunger and na- 
kedness without a miirmur or sigh, as well 
as for their magnanimity in retiring to civil 
hfe at the moment of victory, with arms in 
their hands-, and without any just compen^ 
sation for their services, will only cease to 
celebrated, when time shall exist no more- 
The provincial generals having received 
advice that the British commander in-chief 
designed to take possession of the heights, 
on the peninsula of Charlestown, detach- 
ed a thousand men in the night of the 
16th of June, under the orders of Gen- 
eral Warren, to entrench themselves upon 
one of those eminences, named Bunker- 
Hill. Though retarded by accidents from 
'beginning the work until nearly ittidnight, 
yet, by dawn of day, they had constructed 
a redoubt about eight rods square, and com- 
imenced a breastwork from the left to the 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 07 

low grounds, which an insufferable fire 
from the shipping, floating batteries, and 
cannon on Cop's Hill, in Boston, prevent- 
ed them from completing. 

At mid-day, four battalions of foot, ten 
companies of grenadiers, ten companies of 
light infantry, with a proportion of artillery, 
commanded by Major General Howe, 
landed under a heavy cannonade from the 
ships, and advanced in three lines to the at- 
tack. The light infantry, being formed on 
their right, was directed to turn the left 
flank of the Americans ; and the grenadiers, 
supported by two battahons, to storm the 
redoubt in front. Meanwhile, on apphca- 
tion, these troops were augmented by the 
47th regiment, the 1st battalion of marines, 
together with some companies of light in- 
fantry, and grenadiers, which formed an 
aggregate force of between two and three 
thousand men. But so diflicult was it to 
reinforce the Americans by sending detach- 
ments across the Neck, which was raked 
by the cannon of the shipping, that not 
more than fifteen hundred men were 
brought into action. Few instances can 
be produced in the annals of mankind, 
where soldiers who never had before faced 
an enemy, or heard the whisthng of a ball, 
behaved with such deliberate and perseve- 
ring valor. It was not until after the gren- 



58 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

adiers had been twice repulsed to their 
boats, General Warren slain, his troops 
exhausted of their amunition, their lines in 
a manner enfiladed by artillery, and the re- 
doubt half filled with British regulars, that 
the word w^as given to retire. In that for- 
lorn condition, the spectacle was astonish- 
ing as new, to behold these undisciplined 
men, most of them without bayonets, dis- 
puting with the butt end of their muskets 
against the British bayonet, and receding 
in sullen despair. Still the light infantry, 
on their left, would certainly have gained 
their rear, and exterminated this gallant 
corps, had not a body of four hundred Con- 
necticut men, with the captains Knoulton 
and Chester, after forming a temporary 
breastwork by pulling up one post and 
rail fence, and putting it upon another, per- 
formed prodigies of bravery. They held 
the enemy at bay, until the main body had 
relinquished the heights, and then retreat- 
ed across the Neck, with more regularity 
and less loss than could have been expect- 
ed. The British, who effected nothing the 
destruction of Charlestown by a wanton 
conflagration, had more than one half of 
their whole number killed and wounded : 
the Americans, only three hundred and fif- 
ty-five killed, wounded, and missing. In 



LIFE OP PUTNAM. 59 

this battle, the presence and example of 
General Putnam, who arrived with the re- 
infoi ce ment, were not less conspicuous than 
useful. He did every thing that an intrep- 
id and experienced officer could accom- 
plish. The enemy pursued to Winter Hill 
—Putnam made a stand, and drove them 
back under cover of their ships. 

After this action, the British strongly for- 
tified themselves on the peninsulas of Bos- 
ton and Charlestown : while the provincials 
remained posted in the circumjacent coun- 
try, in such manner as to form a blockade. 
In the beginning of July, General Wash- 
ington, who had been constituted by Con- 
gress commander in chief of the American 
forces, arrived at Cambridge to take the 
command. Having formed the army into 
three grand divisions, consisting of about 
twelve regiments each, he appointed Ma- 
jor General Ward to command the right 
wing, Major General Lee the left wing, 
and Major General Putnam the reserve.— 
General Putnam's alertness, in accelerating 
the construction of the necessary defences,, 
was particularly noticed and highly ap- 
proved by the commander in chief. 

About the 20th of July, the declaration 
of Congress, setting forth the reasons of 
their taking up arms, was proclaimed at 
the head of the several divisions- It con- 



60 LIB^E OF PUTiNAM. 

eluded with these patriotic and noble sen^ 
timents : "In our own native land, in de- 
fence of the freedom that is our birthri<rht, 
and which we ever enjoyed until the late 
violation of it ; for the protection of our 
property, acquired solely by the honest in- 
dustry of our forefathers and ourselves ; 
against violence actually offered, we have 
taken up arms. We shall lay them down 
when hostilities shall cease on the part of 
the aggressors, and all danger of their being 
renewed shall be removed, and not before. 
"With an humble confidence in the mer^ 
cies of the supreme and impartial Judge 
and ruler of the universe, we most devoutly 
implore his divine goodness to conduct us 
happily through this great conflict, to dis- 
pose our adversaries to reconciliation on 
reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve 
the empire from the calamities of civil war." 
As soon as these memorable words were 
pronounced to General Putnam's division, 
which he had ordered to be paraded on 
Prospect Hill, they shouted in three huzzas 
aloud, Amen ! Whereat (a cannon from 
the fort being fired at a signal) the new 
standard^ lately sent from Connecticut, was 
suddenly seen to rise and unrol itself to the 
wind. On one side was inscribed in large 
letters of gold, " an appeal to heaven," 
and on the other were delineated the armo- 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 6l 

rial bearings of Connecticut, which, with- 
out supporters or crest, consist, unosten- 
tatiously, of Three Vines, with this motto : 
"Qwi transtuli sustinet \'''' alluding to the 
pious confidence our forefathers placed io 
the protection of heaven, on those three 
allegoric scions — Knowledge, Liberty, 
Religion — which they had been instru-- 
mental in transplanting to America. 

The strength of position on the enemy's 
part, and want of amunition on ours, pre- 
vented operations of magnitude from being 
attempted. Such diligence was used in 
fortifying our camps, and such precautions 
adopted to prevent surprise, as to ensure 
tranquility to the troops during the winter. 
In the spring, a position was taken so men- 
acing to the enemy, as to cause them, on 
the 17th of March, 1776, to abandon Bos- 
ton : not without considerable precipitation 
and dereliction of royal stores. 

Notwithstanding the war had now ra- 
ged in other parts with unaccustomed se- 
verity for nearly a year, yet the British 
ships at New York (one of which had 
once fired upon the town to intimidate 
the inhabitants) found the means of being 
supplied with fresh water and provisions. 
General Putnam resolved to adopt effectu- 
al measures for putting a period to this in- 

6 



62 LIFE OF PUTNAM* 

tercourse, and accordingly expressed his 
prohibition in the most pointed terms. 

Nearly at the same moment, a detach- 
ment of a thousand continentals was sent 
to occupy Governour's Jsland, a regiment 
to fortify Red Hook, and some companies 
of riflemen to the Jersey shore. Of two 
boats (belonging to two armed vessels) 
which attempted to take on board fresh 
water from the watering place on Staten 
Island, one was driven off (by the riflemen) 
with two or three seamen killed in it ; and 
the other captured with thirteen. A few 
days afterwards, Captain Vandeput, of the 
Asia man of war, the senior officer ships 
on this station, finding the intercourse with 
the shore interdicted, their limits contracted, 
and that no good purposes could be an- 
swered by remaining there, sailed with all 
the armed vessels out of the harbor. These 
arrangements and transactions, joined to 
an unremitting attention to the completion 
of the defences, gave full scope to the ac- 
tivity of General Putnam until the arrival 
of General Washington, which happened 
about the middle of April. 

The commander in chief, in his first pub- 
lic orders, " complimented the officers who 
had successively commanded at New York, 
and returned his thanks to them as well as 
to the officers and soldiers under their com- 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 63 

mand, for the many works of defence which 
had been so expeditiously erected : at the 
same time he expressed an expectation that 
the same spirit of zeal for the service, 
would continue to animate their future con- 
duct." Putnam who was then the only 
major-general with the main army, had 
still a chief agency in forwarding the forti- 
fications : and, with the assistance of the 
brigadiers Spencer and Lord Stirling, in as- 
signing to the different corps their alarm 
posts. 

It was the latter end of June, when the 
British fleet, which had been at Halifax, 
waiting for reinforcements from Europe, 
began to arrive at New York. To obstruct 
its passage, some marine preparations had 
been made. General Putnam to whom the 
direction of the whale-boats, fire-rafts, flat- 
battomed boats, and armed vessels, was 
committed, afforded his patronage to a pro- 
ject for destroying the^ enemy's shipping, 
oy explosion. A machine altogether diffe- 
rent from any thing hitherto devised by the 
art of man, had been invented by Mr. David 
Bushnell, for submarine navigation, which 
was found to answer the purpose perfectl)^, 
of rowing horizontally at any given depth 
under water, and of rising or sinking at 
pleasure. To this machine (called the Ame- 
rican Turtle) was attached a magazine of 



64 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

powder, which was intended to be fastened 
under the bottom of a ship, with a driving 
screw, in such sort that the same stroke 
which disengaged it from the machine, 
should put the internal clockwork in mo- 
tion. This being done, the ordinary opera- 
tion of a gun lock, at the distance of half 
an hour, an hour, or any determinate time, 
would cause the powder to explode, and 
leave the effects to the common laws of 
nature. The simplicity, yet combination, 
discovered in the mechanism of this won- 
derful machine, were acknowledged by 
those skilled in physics, and particularly 
hydraulics, to be not less ingenious than 
movel. The inventor, whose constitution 
was too feeble to permit him to perform the 
labor of rowing the turtle, had taught his 
brother to manage it with perfect dexterity ; 
but unfortunately his brother fell sick of a 
fever just before the arrival of the fleet. — 
Recourse was therefore had to a sergeant 
in the Connecticut troops; who having re- 
ceived whatever instructions could be com- 
municated to him in a short time, went too 
late in the night, with all the apparatus, 
under the bottom of the Eagle, a sixty-four 
gun ship, on board of which the British ad- 
miral. Lord Howe, commanded. In com- 
ing up, the screw that had been calculated 
to perforate the copper sheathing, unluckily 



LiFE OP PUTNAM. 65 

struck against some iron plates, where the 
rudder is connected with the stern. This 
accident, added to the streriglh of tide 
which prevailed, and the want of adequate 
skill in the sergeant, occasioned such delay» 
that the dawn began to appear, whereup- 
on he abandoned the magazine to chancCi 
and, after gaining a proper distance, for the 
sake of expedition, rowed on the surface to- 
wards the town. General Putnam, who 
had been on the wharf anxiously expecting 
the result, from the first glimmering of light, 
beheld the machine near Governor's Island, 
and sent a whaleboat to bring it on shore. 
In about twenty minutes afterwards, the 
magazine exploded, and blew a vast col- 
umn of water to an amazing height in the 
air. As the whole business had been kept 
an inviolable secret, he was not a httle di- 
verted with the various conjectures, wheth- 
er this stupendous noise was produced by a 
bomb, a meteor, a waterspout, or an earth- 
quake. Other operations of a most serious 
nature rapidly succeeded, and prevented a 
repetition of the experiment. 

On the twenty-second day of August the 
van of the British landed on Long Island, 
and was soon followed by the whole army, 
except one brigade of Hessians, a small 
body of British, and some convalescents, 
left on Staten Island. Our troops ou Long 
6* 



66 LIFE OF PtlTNAM. 

Island had been commanded during the 
summer by General Greene, who was now 
sick ; and General Putnam took the com- 
mand but two days before the battle of Flat- 
bush. The instructions to him (pointing in 
the first place to decisive expedients for sup- 
pressing the scattering, unmeaning, and 
wasteful fire of our men) contained regula- 
tions for the service of the guards, the bri- 
gadiers and the field officers of the day ; 
for the appointment and encouragement of 
proper scouts ; as well as for keeping the 
men constantly at their posts ; for prevent- 
ing the burning of buildings, (except it 
should be necessary for military purposes,) 
and for preserving private property from 
pillage and destruction. To these regula- 
tions were added^ in a more diffuse though 
not less spirited and prefession&l st)de, re- 
flections on the distinction of an army from 
a mob ; with exhortations for the soldiers 
to conduct themselves manfully in such a 
cause, and for their commander to oppose 
the enemy's approach with detachments of 
his best troops : while he should endeavor 
to render their advance more difficult by 
constructing abattis, and to entrap their 
parties by forming ambuscades. General 
Putnam was within the lines, when an en- 
gagement took place on the 27th, between 
the British army and our advanced corps^ 



in which we lost about a thousand men 
in killed and missing, with the Generals 
Sullivan and Lord Stirling made prisoners* 
But our men, though attacked on all sides, 
fought with great bravery ; and the enc 
my's loss was not light. 

The unfortunate battle of Long island^ 
the masterly retreat from thence, and the 
actual passage of part of the hostile fleet in 
the East River above the town, precluded 
the evacuation of New York. A promo^ 
tion of four majors general, and six briga- 
diers, had previously been made by Con- 
gress. After the retreat from Long Island^ 
the main army, consisting, for the moment, 
of sixty battalions, (of which twenty were 
continental, the residue levies and militia,) 
was, conformably to the exigencies of the 
service, rathei" than to the rules of war, 
formed into fourteen brigades. Major" 
General Putnam commanded the right 
grand division of five brigades, the Majors 
General Spencer and Greene the centre of 
six brigades ; and Major General Heath 
the left, which was posted near Kings- 
bridge, and composed of two brigades* — 
The whole never amounted to twenty 
thousand effective men ; while the British 
and German forces under Sir William 
Howe, exceeded twenty-two thousand : in- 
ideed, the minister had asserted in parlia- 



68 LIFE OP iPUtNAM. 

ment, that they would consist of more tlmil 
thirty thousand. Our two centre divisions, 
both commanded by General Spencer in 
the sickness of General Greene, moved to- 
wards Mt. Washington, Harlem Heights, 
and Horn's Hook, as soon as the final res- 
olution was taken, in a council of war, on 
the 12th of September, to abandon the city. 
That event, thus circumstanced, took ef- 
fect a few days after. 

On Sunday the fifteenth, the British, af- 
ter sending three ships of war up the North 
River to Bloomingdale, and keeping up for 
some hours a severe cannonade on our lines? 
from those already in the East River, land- 
ed in force at Turtle Bay : our new levies^ 
commanded by a state brigadier general^ 
fled without making resistance. Two bri^ 
gades of general Putnam's division, ordered 
to their support, notwithstanding the exer- 
tion of their brigadiers, and of the com- 
mander in chief himself, conducted them- 
selves in the same shameful manner. His 
excellency then ordered the Heights of 
Harlem, a strong position, to be occupied. 
Thither the forces in the vicinity, as well 
as the fugitives, repaired. In the mean 
time General Putnam, with the remainder 
of his command, and the ordinary outposts, 
was in the city. After having caused the 
brigades to begin their retreat by the route 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 69 

of Bloomingdale, in order to avoid the ene - 
my, who were t hen in the possession of the 
main road leading to Kingsbridge, he gal- 
lopped to call off the pickets and guards. 
Having myself been a volunteer in his di- 
vision, and acting adjutant to the last regi- 
ment that left the city, 1 had frequent op- 
portunities that day of beholding him, for 
the purpose of issuing orders and encoura- 
ging the troops, flying on his horse, cover- 
ed with foam, wherever his presence was 
most necessary. Without his extraordina- 
ry exertions, the guards must have been in- 
evitably lost, and it is probable the entire 
corps would have been cut in pieces. — 
When we were not far from Bloomingdale, 
an aid-de-camp came from him at full speed, 
to inform that a column of British infantry 
was descending upon our right. Our rear 
was soon fired upon, and the colonel of our 
regiment, whose order was just communi- 
cated for the front to file off to the left, was 
killed on the spot. With no other loss, we 
joined the army, after dark, on the Heights 
of Harlem. 

Before our brigades came in, we were 
given up for lost by all our friends. So 
critical indeed was our situation, and nar- 
row the gap by which we escaped, that 
the instant we had passed, the enemy clo- 
sed it by extending their line from river to 



70 LIFE OF PUTxVAM. 

river. Our men who had been fifteen hours 
under ^rms, harrassed by marching and 
countermarching, in consequence of inces- 
sant alarms, exhausted as they were by heat 
and thirst, (for the day proved insupporta- 
bty hot, and few or none had canteens, in- 
somuch that, some died at the brooks where 
they drank,) if attacked, could have made 
but feeble resistance. 

That night our soldiers, excessively fa- 
tigued by the sultry march of li^e day, their 
clothes wet by a severe shower of rain that 
succeeded towards the evening, their blood 
chilled by the cold w^ind that produced a 
sudden change in the temperature of the 
air, and their hearts sunk within them by 
the loss of baggage, artillery, and works, 
in which they had been taught to put great 
confidence, lay upon their arms, covered 
only by the clouds of an uncomfortable 
sky. To retrieve our disordered affairs, 
and prevent the enemy from profiting by 
them, no exertion was relaxed, no vigilance 
remitted, on the part of our higher officers. 
The regiments which had been least expo- 
sed to fatigue that day furnished the neces- 
sary pickets to secure the army from sur- 
prise. Those, whose military lives had 
been short and unpractised, felt enough be- 
sides lassitude of body to disquiet the tran- 
quility of their repose. Nor had those who 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. ^ 71 

were older in the service, and of more ex- 
perience, any subject for consolation. The 
warmth of enthusiasm seemed to be extin- 
guished. The force of discipline had not 
sufficient^ occupied ils place, to give men 
a dependence upon each other. We were 
apparently about to reap the bitter fruits of 
that jealous policy, which some leading 
men (with the best motives) had sown in 
our federal councils, when they caused the 
mode to be adopted for carrying on the 
war detachments of mihtia, from apprehen- 
sion that an established continental army, 
after defending the country against foreign 
invasion, might subvert its liberty them* 
selves. Paradoxicol as it will appear, it 
may be profitable to be known to posterity, 
that, while our very existence as an inde- 
f)endent people was in question, the patrio' 
tic jealousy for the safety of our freedom 
had been carried to such a virtuous, but 
dangerous excess, as well nigh to preclude 
the attainment of our independence. Hap- 
pily, that limited and hazardous system 
soon gave room enlightened and salutary. 
This may be attributed to the reiterated ar- 
guments, the open remonstrances, and the 
confidential communications of the com- 
mander-in-chief; who, though not apt ta 
despair of the republic, on this occasion ex- 
pressed in terms of unusual despondency « 



72 . LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

He declared in his letters, that he found, 
to his utter astoaishment and mortification, 
that no reliance could be placed on a great 
proportion of his present troops, and that, 
unless efficient measures for establishing a 
permanent force should be speedily pursued, 
we had every reason to fear the final ruin 
of our cause. 

Next morning several parties appear- 
ed upon the plains in our front. On re- 
ceiving this intelligence, General Washing- 
ton rode quickly to the outpost, for the pur- 
pose of preparing against an attack, if the 
enemy should advance v^ith that design. — 
Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton's rangers, a 
fine selection from the eastern regiments, 
who had been skirmishing with an advan- 
ced party, came in and informed the gene- 
ral that a body of British were under cover 
of a small eminence at no considerable dis- 
tance. His excellency, willing to raise our 
men from their dejection by the splendor of 
some little success, ordered Lieut. Colonel 
Knowlton with his rangers, and Major 
Leitch with three companies of Weed's re- 
giment of Virginians, to gain their rear, 
while appearances should be made of an 
attack in front. As soon as the enemy saw 
the party sent to decoy them, they ran pre- 
cipitately down the hill, took possession of 
some fences and bushes, and commenced a 



LIFE OF PUTNAxM. 73 

brisk fire at long shot. Unfortunately, 
Ki;^wlton and Leitcb made their onset ra- 
thelkin flank than in rear. The enemy 
changed their front, and the skirmish at 
once became close and warm. Major 
Leitch having received three balls through 
his side, was soon borne from the held, and 
Colonel Knowlton, who had distinguished 
himself so gallantly at the battle of Bunker 
Hill, was mortally wounded immediately 
after. Their men, however, undaunted by 
these disasters, stimulated with the thirst 
of revenge for the loss of their leaders, and 
conscious of acting under the eye of the 
commander in chief, maintained the conflict 
with uncommon spirit and perseverance. — 
But the general, seeing them in need of 
support, advanced part of the Maryland re- 
giments of Griffith and Richardson, togeth- 
er with some detachments from such east- 
ern corps as chanced to be njost contiguous 
to the place of action. Our troops this day, 
without exception, behaved with the great- 
est intrepidity. So bravely did they repulse 
the British, that Sir William Howe moved 
his reserve with two field pieces, a battalion 
of Hessian grenadiers, and a company of 
chasseurs, to succor his retreating troops. 
General Washington, not willing to draw 
on a general action, declined pressing the 
pursuit. In this engagement were the s^ 
7 



74 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

cond and third battalions of ligiit infantry^ 
the 42d British regiment, and the German 
chasseurs, of whom eight officers and up- 
wards of seventy privates were wounded, 
and our people buried nearly twenty, who 
were left dead on the field. . We had about 
forty wounded : our loss in killed, except 
of two valuable officers, was very inconsi- 
derable. 

An advantage, so trivial in itself, produ- 
ced, in event, a surprising and almost in- 
credible effect upon the whole army. A- 
mong the troops not engaged, who, during 
the action, were throwing earth from the 
new trenches, with an alacrity ihat indica- 
ted that indicated a determination to defend 
them — every visage was seen to brighten, 
and to assume, instsead of the gloom of 
despair, the glow of animation. This chang, 
no less sudden than happy, left litde room 
to doubt that the men, who ran the day be- 
fore at the sight of an enemy, would now, 
to wipe away the stain of that disgrace, and 
to recover the confidence of their general, 
have conducted themselves in a very diffe- 
rent manner. Some alteration was made 
in the distribution of corps, to prevent th© 
British from gaining either flank in the suc- 
ceeding night. Gen. Putnam, who com- 
manded on the right, was directed, in or- 
ders, m case the enemy should attempt to 



LIFE OP PUTNAM. 75 

force the pass, to apply for a reinforcement 
to General Spencer, who commanded on 
the left. 

General Putnam, who was too good a 
husbandman himself not to have a respect 
for the labors and improvements of others, 
strenuously seconded the views of the com- 
mander in chief in preventing the devasta- 
tion of farms, and the violation of private 
property ; for, under pretext that the pro- 
perty in this quarter belonged to friends to 
the British goverment, as, indeed, it mostly 
did, a spirit of rapine and licentiousness be- 
gan to prevail, which, unless repressed in 
the beginning, foreboded, besides the sub- 
version of discipline, the disgrace and de- 
feat of our arms. 

Our new defences now becoming so 
strong as not to admit of insult with impu- 
nity, and Sir William Howe, not choosing 
to place too much at risk in attacking us in 
front, on the 12th, day of October, leaving 
Lord Piercy with one Hessian and two 
British brigades in his lines at Harlem, to 
cover New York, embarked with the main 
body of his army with an intention of land- 
ing at Frog's Neck, situated near the town 
of Westchester, and little more than a 
league above the communication called 
Kingsbridge, which connects New York 
island with the main land. There was no- 



t6 LIFE OF PUTNAIM. 

thing to oppose him ; and he effected his 
debarkation by nine o'clock in the morning. 
The same polic}^ of keeping our army as 
compact as possible ; the same system of 
avoiding being forced into action ; and tlie 
same precaution to prevent the interruption 
of supplies, reinforcements, or retreat, that 
lately dictated the evacuation of New York, 
now induced Gen. Washington to move to- 
wards the strong grounds in the upper part 
of Westchester county. 

About the same time, General Putnam 
was sent to the western side of the Hud- 
son, to provide against an irruption into the 
Jerseys, and soon after to Philadelphia, to 
put that town into a posture of defence. — 
Thither 1 attended him. Without stopping 
to dilate on the subsequent incidents, that 
might swell a folio, though here compress- 
ed to a single paragraph : without attempt- 
ing to give, in detail, the skilful retrogade 
movements of our commander in chief, who 
after detaching a garrison for Fort Wash- 
ington, by pre-occupying with extempora- 
neous redoubts and entrenchments, the 
ridges from Mile Square to White Plains, 
and by folding one brigade behind another 
in rear of those ridges that run parallel with 
the Sound, and brought off all his artillery, 
stores, and sick, in the face of a superior 
foe : without commenting on the partial 



LIFE OP PUTNAM. 77 

mid equivocal battle fought near the last 
mentioned village, or the cause why the 
British, then in full force, (for the last of the 
Hessian infantry and British lighthorse had 
just arrived,) did not more seriously endea- 
vor to induce a general engagement : with- 
out journalizing their military manoeuvres 
in falling back to Kingsbridge, capturing 
fort Washington, Fort Lee, and marching 
through ihe Jerseys : without enumerating 
the instances of rapine, murder, lust, and 
devastation, that marked their progress, 
and 'filled our bosoms with horror and in- 
dignation : without describing how a divis- 
ion of our dissolving army, with General 
Washington, driven before them beyond 
the Delaware : without painting the naked 
and forlorn condition of these much-injured 
men, amidst the rigors of an inclement sea- 
son, and without even sketching the con- 
vsternation that seized the states at this per- 
ilous period — when Gen. Lee (in leading 
from the north a small reinforcement to 
our troops) was himself taken prisoner by 
surprise : when every thing seemed deci- 
dedly declining to the last extremity, and 
when every prospect but served to augment 
the depression of despair — until the genius 
of one man in one day, at a single stroke, 
wrested from the veteran battalions of Bri- 

lajn and Germany, the fruits acquired by 

"2* 



78 LIFE OF PUTiVAxM. 

the total operations of a successful cam- 
paign, and reanimated the expiring hope 
of a whole nation, by the glorious enter- 
prise at 'iVenton. 

While the hostile forces, rashly inflated 
with pride by a series of uninterrupted suc- 
cesses, and fondly dreaming that a period 
would soon be put to their labors by the 
completion of their conquests, had been pur- 
suing the wretched remnants of a disband^ 
ed army to the banks of the Delaware, 
General Putnam was diligently employed 
in fortifying Philadelphia, the capture of 
which appeared indubitably to be their prin- 
cipal object. Here, by authority and ex- 
ample, he strove to conciliate contending 
factions, and to excite the citizens to un- 
common efforts in defence of every thing 
interesting to freemen. His personal in- 
dustry was unparalleled. His orders with 
respect to extinguishing accidental fires, 
advancing the public works, as well as in 
regard to other important objects, were per- 
fectly military and proper. But his health 
was, for a while, impaired by his unrelaxed 
exertions. 

The commander in chief, having, in spite 
of all obstacles, made good his retreat over 
the Delaware, wrote to General Putnamy 
(from his camp above the falls of Trenton, 
on the very day he recrossed the river to* 



LIFE OF Pt'TNAM. 79 

surprise the Hessians,) expressed his satis- 
faction at the re-establislunent of that gen- 
eral's heahh, and informing, that if he had 
not himself been well convmced before of 
the enemy's intention to possess themselves 
of Philadelphia, as soon as the frost should 
form ice strong enough to traiisport them 
and their artillery across the Delaware, he 
had how obtained an intercepted letter 
which placed the matter beyond a doubt. 
He added, that if the citizens of Philadel- 
phia had any regard for the town, not a 
moment's time was to be lost until it should 
be put in the best possible posture of de- 
fence : but lest that should not be done, he 
directed the removal of all the public stores, 
except provisions necessary lor immediate 
use, to places of greater security. He que- 
ried whether, if a party of militia could be 
sent from Philadelphia to support those in 
the Jerseys about Mount Holly, it would 
not serve to save them from submission ? 
At the same time, he signified, as his opin- 
ion, the expediency of sending an active 
and influential officer to inspirit the people, 
to encourage them to assemble in arms, as 
well to keep those already in arms from 
disbanding ; and concluded by manifesting 
a wish that Colonel Forman, whom he de- 
sired to see for this purpose, might be em- 
ployed on the service. 



80 LIFE OP PUTxVAM. 

The enemy had vainly, as incautiously, 
imagined, that to overrun was to conquer. 
They had even carried their presumption 
on our extreme weakness, and expected 
submission so far, as to attempt covering 
the country, through which they had 
marched, with an extensive chain of can- 
tonments. That link, which the post at 
Trenton supplied, consisted of a Hessian 
brigade of infantry, a company of chasseurs, 
a squadron of light dray^oons, and six field 
pieces. At eight o'ciock in the morning of 
the 26th day of December, Gen. Washing- 
ton, with twenty-four hundred men, came 
upon them, (after they had paraded,) took 
one thousand prisoners, and repassed the 
same day without loss to his encampment. 
As soon as the troops were recovered from 
their excessive fatigue. Gen. Washington 
recrossed a second time to Trenton. On 
the second of January, Lord Cornwallis, 
with the bulk of the British army, advan- 
ced upon him, cannonaded his post, and of- 
fered him battle : but the two armies being 
separated by the interposition of Trenton 
Greek, Gen. Washington had it in his op- 
tion to dechne an engagement ; which he 
did for the sake of striking the masterly 
stroke that he then meditated. Having 
kindled frequent fires around his camp, 
posted faithful men to keep them burning, 



LIFE OF PUT:JAM. 



Bt 



and advanced sentinels whose fidelity might 
be relied upon, he decamped silently after 
dark, and by a circuitous route reached 
i^rinceton at nine o'clock the next morning. 
The noise of the firing, by which he killed 
and captured between five and six hundred 
of the British brigade in that town, was the 
first notice Cornwallis had of this stolen 
march. General Washington, the project 
successfully accomplished, instantly filed off 
for the mountainous grounds of Morristown. 
Meanwhile, his lordship, who arrived by a 
forced march at Princeton, just as he had 
left it, finding the Americans could not be 
overtaken, proceeded without halting, to 
Brunswick. 

On the 51 h of January, 1777, from Pluck- 
emin. Gen. Washington dispatched an ac- 
count of this second success to Gen. Put- 
nam, and ordered him to move immediate- 
ly with all his troops to Crosswicks, for the 
purpose of co-operating in recovering the 
Jerseys : an event which the present for- 
tunate juncture (while the enemy were yet 
panic-struck) appeared to promise. The 
general cautioned him, however, if the en- 
emy should still continue at Brunswick, to 
guard with great circumspection against a 
surprise : especially as they, having recent- 
ly suffered by two attacks, could scarcely 
avoid being edged with resentment to at' 



82 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

tempt retaliation. His excellency farther 
advised him to give out his strength to be 
twice as great as it w^as : to forward on all 
the baggage and scattering men belonging 
to the division destined for Morristown ; to 
employ as many spies as he should think 
proper ; to keep a number of horsemen, in 
the dress of the country, going constantly 
backwards and forwards on the same se- 
cret service ; and lastly, if he should disco- 
ver any intention or motion of the enemy 
that could be depended upon, and might be 
of consequence, not to fail in conveying the 
intelligence as rapidly as possible, by ex- 
press, to head-quarters. Gen. Putnam was 
soon after to take post at Princeton, where 
he continued until the spring. He had ne- 
ver with him more than a few hundred 
troops, though he was only at fifteen miles 
distance from the enemy's strong garrison 
of Brunswick. At one period, from a sud- 
den diminution, occasioned by the tardiness 
of the militia turning out to rep'ace those 
whose time of service was expired, he had 
fewer men for duty than he had miles of 
frontier to guard. Nor was the command- 
er in chief in a more eligible situation. It 
is true, that while he had scarcely the sem- 
blance of an army, under the specious pa- 
rade of a park of artillery, and the impos- 
ing appearance of his head-quarters, estab- 



LIFE OF FUTiNAM. 83 

lished at Morristown, he kept up in the 
eyes of his countrymen, as well as in the 
opinion of his enemy, the appearance of no 
contemptible force. Future generations 
will find difficulty in conceiving how a 
handful of new levied men and militia, who 
were necessitated to be inoculated for the 
small pox in the course of the winter, could 
be subdivided and posted so advantageous- 
ly, as effectually to protect the inhabitants, 
confine the enemy, curtail their forage, and 
beat up their quarters, without sustaining 
a single disaster. 

In the battle of Princeton, Captain Mc- 
Pherson, of the 1 9th British regiment, a 
very worthy Scotchman, was desperately 
wounded in the lungs, and left with the 
dead. Upon (^en. Putnam's arrival there, 
he found him languishing in extreme dis- 
tress, without a surgeon, without a single 
accommodation, and without a friend to so- 
lace the sinking spirit in the gloomy hour 
of death. He visited, and immediately 
caused every possible comfort to be admin- 
istered to him. MPherson, who, contrary 
to all appearances, recovered, after having 
demonstrated to Gen. Putnam the dignified 
sense of obligations which a generous mind 
wishes not to conceal, one day in familiar 
conversation demanded — " Pray, sir, what 
countryman are you ?" *' An American," 



84 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

answered Putnam. " Not a Yankee T' 
said the other. " A full blooded one," re- 
plied the general." " By G — d, 1 am sor- 
ry for that," rejoined M'Pherson ; '• 1 did 
not think there could be so much goodness 
and generosity in an American, or indeed 
in any body but a Scotchman." 

While the recovery of Captain MTher- 
6on was doubtful, he desired that General 
Putnam would permit a friend in the Brit- 
ish army at Brunswick to come and assist 
him in making his will. General Putnam, 
who had then only fifty men in his whole 
command, was sadly embarrassed l)ylhe 
proposition. On the one hand he was not 
cont(;nt that a British officer should have 
an opportunity to spy out the weakness of 
his post — on the other, it was scarcely in 
his nature lo refuse complying with a dic- 
tate of humanity. He luckily bethought 
himself of an expedient, which he hastened 
to put in practice. A flag of truce was 
despatched with Captain MTherson's re- 
quest, but under an injunction not to re- 
turn with his friend until afler dark. In the 
evening, lights were placed in all the rooms 
of the college, and in every apartment of the 
vacant houses throughout the town. Du- 
ring the whole night the fifty men, some- 
times in small detachments, were marched 
from different quarters by the house in 



LIFE OB' PUTNAM. 85 

which MTherson lay. Afterwards it was 
known, that the officer who came on the 
visit, at his return, reported, thai General 
Putnam's army, upon the most moderate 
calculation, could not consist of less than 
four or five thousand men. 

During this period General Putnam hav- 
ing received unquestionable intelligence, 
that a party of refugees, in British pay, had 
taken post, and were erecting a kind of re- 
doubt at Lawrence's Neck, sent Colonel 
Nelson with one hundred and fifty militia 
to surprise ihem. That officer conducted 
with so much secrecy and decision, as to 
take the whole prisoners. These refugees, 
commanded by Major Stocklon, belonged 
to bkinner's brigade, and amounted to six- 
ty in number. 

In the latter part of February, General 
Washington advised General Putnam, that 
in consequence of a large accession of 
strength from New York to the British ar- 
my at Brunswick, it was to be apprehend- 
ed they would soon make a forward move- 
ment towards the Delaware ; in which case 
the latter was directed to cross the river 
with his actual force, to assume the com- 
mand of the militia who might assemble, 
to secure the boats on the west side of the 
Delaware, and to facilitate the passage of 
the rest of the army. But the enemy did 
8 



86 LIFE OP PUTNAM. 

not remove tVom their winter quarters until 
the season arrived when green forage could 
be supplied. In the intermediate period, 
the correspondence on the part of General 
Putnam with the commander in chief con- 
sisted chiefly of reports and inquiries con- 
cerning the treatment of some of the fol- 
lowing descriptions of persons : either of 
those who came within our hues with flags 
and pretended flags, or who had taken pro- 
tection from the enemy, or who had been 
reputed disaffected to our cause, or who 
were designed to be comprehended in the 
American proclamation, which required 
that those who had taken protections 
should give them to the nearest American 
officer, or go within the British lines. The 
letters of his excellency in return, general- 
ly advisory, were indicative of confidence 
and approbation. 

When the spring had now so far advan- 
ced that it was obvious the enemy would 
soon take the field : the commander in 
chief, after desiring General Putnam to 
give the officers who were to relieve him 
at Princeton, all the information necessary 
for the conduct of that post, appointed that 
general to the command of a separate army 
in the Highlands of New York. 

It is scaicely decided, from any docu- 
ments yet published, whether the prepos- 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. * 87 

teroiis plans prosecuted by the British gen- 
erals in the campaign of 1777, were alto- 
gether the result of their orders from home, 
or whether they partially originated from 
the contingencies of the moment. 

The system, which at the time tended to 
puzzle all human conjecture, when devel- 
oped, served also to contradict all reasona- 
ble calculation. Certain it is, the Ameri- 
can commander in chief was for a consid- 
erable time so perplexed with contradicto- 
ry appearances, that he knew not how to 
distribute his troops with his usual discern- 
ment, so as to oppose the enemy with equal 
prospect of success in different parts. The 
gathering tempest menaced the northern 
frontiers, the posts in the Highlands, and 
the city of Philadelphia : but it was still 
doubtful where the fury of the storm would 
fall. At one time Sir William Howe was 
forcing his way by land to Philadelphia, at 
another relinquishing the Jerseys, at a third 
facing round to make a sudden inroad, then 
embarking with all the forces that could be 
spared from New York, and then putting 
out to sea — at the very moment when Gen- 
eral Burgoyne had reduced Ticonderoga, 
and seemed to require a co-operation in 
another quarter. 

It was not wonderful that many tories 
were able, undiscovered, to penetrate, far 



88 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

into the country, and even to go with let- 
ters or messages from one British army to 
another. The inhabitants who were well 
affected to the royal cause, afforded them 
every possible support, and their own 
knowledge of the different routes gave 
them a farther facility in performing their 
peregrinations. Sometimes active loyal- 
ists, (as the tories wished to denominate 
themselves) who had gone into the British 
posts, and received promises of commis- 
sions upon enlisting a certain number of 
soldiers, came back again secretly, with re- 
cruiting instructions. Sometimes these and 
others who came from the enemy within 
the verge of our camps, were detected, and 
condemned to death in conformity to the 
usage of war. But the British generals, 
who had an unlimited supply of money at 
their command, were able to pay with so 
much liberality, that emissaries could al- 
ways be found. Still, it is thought that the 
intelligence of the American commandants 
was, at least, equally accurate ; notwith- 
standing the poverty of their military chest 
and the inability of rewarding mercenary 
agents for secret services, in proportion to 
their risk and merit. 

A person by the name of Palmer, who 
was a heutenant in the tory new levies, 
was detected in the camp at Peekskill. — 



LIFE OP PUTNAM. 89 

Governor Tryon, who commanded the 
new levies, reclaimed him as a British offi- 
cer, representing the heinous crime of con- 
demning a man commissioned by his ma- 
jesty, and threatened vengeance in case he 
should be executed. General Putnam 
Wrote the following pithy reply : 

*'Sir, 

"Nathan Palmer, a lieutenant in your 
king^s service, was taken in my camp as a 
sj)y — he was tried as a sj)y — he was con- 
demned as a spy — and you may rest as- 
sured, sir, he shall be hanged as a spy. 

I have the honor to, Slc 

Israel Putnam. 
" His Excellency^ 
Governor I'ryon.''' 

" P. S. Afternoon. 
" He is hanged." 

Important transactions soon occurred.— 
Not long after the two brigades had march- 
ed from Peekskill to Pennsylvania, a rein- 
forcement arrived at N. York from Europe. 
Appearances indicated that offensive oper- 
ations would follow. General Putnam, 
having been reduced in force to a single 
brigade in the field, and a single regiment 
in garrison at Fort Montgomery, repeated* 
8* 



90 LIFE OP PUTNAM, 

ly informed the commander-in-chief that 
the pots committed to his change must in 
all probability be lost, in case an attlempt 
should be made upon them : and that, cir- 
cumstanced as he was, lie could not be re- 
sponsible for the consequences. His situa- 
tion was certainly to be lamented, but it 
was not in the power of the commander-in- 
chief to alter it, except by authorising him 
to call upon the militia for aid^ — an aid al- 
ways precarious, and often so tardy, asj 
when obtained, to be of no utility. 

On the fifth of October, Sir Henry Clin- 
ton came up the North Kiver with three 
thousand men. After makin£2^ many feints 
to mislead the attention, he landed the 
next morning at Stony Point, and com- 
menced his march over the mountains to 
I*'ort Montgomery. Governor Clinton, an 
active, resolute and intelligent officer, who 
commanded the garrison, upon being ap-' 
prised of the movement, despatched a letler 
by express to General Putnam for succor. 
By the treachery of the messenger, the let- 
ter miscarried. General Putnam, astonish- 
ed at hearing nothing respecting the ene- 
my, rode, with General Parsons and Colo- 
nel Root, his adjutant-general, to reconnoi- 
tre them at King's Ferry. In the mean 
time, at five o'clock in the afternoon, Sir 
Henry Clinton's columns, having surmount* 



LIFE OP PUTNAM. 91 

ed the obstacles and barriers of nature, de- 
scended from the Thunder Hill, through 
thickets impassable but for light troos, and 
attacked"^ the different redoiil)ts. The gar- 
rison, inspired by the conduct of their lead- 
ers, defended the works with distinguished 

* The author of these memoirs, then Major of Biigade 
to the first Connecticut brigade, was alone at Jicad-qtiir- 
ters when tlie firinir began. He hastened to Colonel 
Wyllys, the senior officer in tliC camp, and advised him 
to send all the men not on duty to Fort Montgomery^ 
without waiting for orders. About live hundred men 
marched instantly under Colonel Meigs; atjU the aulhorj 
with Dr. Bcardslcy, a surgeon in the brigade, rode at full 
bpced through a by path to let the garrison know that a 
reinforcement was on its niareh. Notwithstanding all 
the haste these officers made to and over the river, the 
fort was so completely invested on their arrival, that it 
Was impossible to enter. They went on board the nevir 
frigate, which lay near the fortress, and had the misfor- 
tune to be idle though not unconcerned, spectators at 
the storm. They sa»\r the minutest actions distinct!^ 
when the works were carried. The frigate, after receive 
ing several platoons, slipped her cable and proceeded 
a little way up the river : but the wind and tide becoming 
adverse, the crew set her on fire, to prevent her falling 
into the hands of the enemy, whose ships were approach- 
ing. The louring daikness of the night, the profound 
stillness that reigned, the interrupted flashes of the flames 
that illuminated the waters, t e long shadows of the clifFtf 
that now and then were seen, the explosion of the can- 
non which were left loaded in the ship, and the reverbe- 
rating echo which resounded, at intervals, between the 
stupendous mountains on both sides of the river, compo- 
sed an awful night-piece, for persons prepared (by the 
preceediug scene) to contemplate ftubjects of horrid sub&^ 



9f2 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

valor. But, as the post had been designed 
principally to prevent the passing of ships, 
and as an assault in rear had not been 
expected, the works on the land side were 
incomplete and untenable. In the dusk of 
twilight the British entered with their bay- 
onets fixed. Their loss was inconsiderable. 
IS' or was that of the garrison great. Gov- 
ernor Clinton, his brother General James 
Clinton, Colonel Dubois, and most of the 
officers and men, effected their escape un- 
der cover of the thick smoke and darkness 
that suddenly prevailed. The capture of 
this fort by Sir Henry Clinton, together 
with the consequent removal oi^ the chains 
and booms that obstructed the navigation, 
opened a passage to Albany, and seemed 
to favor a junction of his force with that of 
General Burgoyne. But the latter having 
been compelled to capitulate a few days af- 
ter this event, and great numbers of militia 
having arrived from New England, the 
successful army returned to New York — 
yet not before a detachment from it, under 
the orders of General Vaughan, had burnt 
the defenceless town of Esopus, and sever- 
al scattering buildings on the banks of the 
river. 

Notwithstanding the army in the High- 
lands had been so much weakened, for the 
sake of strengthening the armies in other 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 93 

quarters, as to have accasioned the loss of 
Fort Montgomery, yet that loss was pro- 
ductive of no ill consequences. Our main 
army in Pennsylvania, after having con- 
tended with a superior force in two indeci- 
sive battles, still held the enemy in check ; 
while the splendid success which attended 
our arms at the northward, gave a more 
favorable aspect to the American affairs at 
the close of this campaign than they had 
ever before assumed. 

When the enemy fell back to New York 
by water, we followed them a part of the 
way by land. Col. Meigs, with a detach- 
ment from the several regiments in Gen- 
eral Parsons' brigade, having made a 
forced march from Crom's Pond to West- 
chester, surprised and broke up for a time 
the band of freebooters, of whom he 
brought off fifty, together wiih many cat- 
tle and horses which they had recently 
stolen. 

Soon after this enterprise, Gen. Putnam 
advanced towards the British lines. As he 
had received intelligence that small bodies 
of the enemy were out with orders from 
Governor IVyon to burn Wright's Mills, 
he prevented it by detaching three parties 
of one hundred men in each. One of these 
parties fell in v/ith and captured thirty-five 
and another forty of the new levies. But, 



94 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

as he could not prevent a third hostile par- 
ty from burning the house of Mr. Van Tas- 
sel, a noted Whig and a committee man, 
who was forced to go along with them, na- 
ked and barefoot, in a freezing night ; he, 
for the professed purpose of retaliation, sent 
Capt. Buchanan, in a whaleboat, to burn 
the house of Gen. Oliver Delancy, on York 
Island. Buchanan effected his object, and 
by this expedition put a period for the pre- 
sent to that unmeaning and wanton species 
of destruction. 

While Gen. Putnam quartered at New 
Rochelle, a scouting party which had been 
sent to West Farms, below Westchester, 
surrounded the house in which Col. James 
Delancy lodged, and, notwithstanding he 
crept under the bed the better to be con- 
cealed, brought him to head-quarters before 
morning. This officer was exchanged by 
the Brhish general without delay, and pla- 
ced at the head of the Cow-Boys, a licen- 
tious corps of irregulars, who, in the sequel, 
committed unheard of depredations and ex- 
cesses. 

It was distressing to see so beautiful a 
part of the country so barbarously wasted ; 
and often to witness some peculiar scene 
of female misery. For most of the female 
inhabitants had been obliged to fly within 
the lines possevssed by one party or the oth- 



LIFE OF PUTiN'AiM. 95 

er. Near our quarters was one affecting 
scene of human misery and depravity. Mr. 
William Sutton of Mamaroneck, an inof- 
fensive man, a merchant by profession, who 
lived in a decent fashion, and whose family 
had as happy prospects as almost any in 
the country, upon some imputation of tory- 
ism, went to the enemy. His wife, op- 
pressed with grief in the disagreeable state 
of dereliction, did not long survive. Betsey 
Sutton, their eldest daughter, was a mod- 
est and lovely young woman, of about fif- 
teen years old, when, at the death of her 
mother, the care of five or six children de- 
volved upon her. She was discreet and pro- 
vident beyond her years. But when we 
saw her, she looked to be feeble in health — 
broken in spirit — wan, melancholy, and de- 
jected. She said, ''that their last cow, which 
furnished milk for the children, had lately 
been taken away — that they had frequent- 
ly been plundered of their wearing apparel 
and furniture, she believed, by both parties 
— that they had little more to lose — and 
that she knew not where to procure bread 
for the dear little ones, who had no father 
to provide for them" — tio mother — she was 
going to have said — but a torrent of tears 
choaked ariiculation. In coming to that 
part of the country again, after some cam- 
paigns had elapsed, 1 found the habitation 



96 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

desolate, and the garden overgrown with 
weeds. Upon inquiry, I learned that as 
soon as we left the place, some ruffians 
broke into to house, while she lay in bed, 
in the latter part of the night, and that ha- 
ving been terrified by their rudeness, she 
ran half naked into a neighboring swamp, 
where she continued until morning; there 
the poor girl caught a violent cold, which 
ended in a consumption. It finished a hfe 
without a spot — and a career of sufferings 
commenced and continued without a fault. 
Sights of wretchedness always touched 
with commiseration the feehngs of General 
Putnam, and prompted his generous soul 
to succor the afflicted. But the indulgence 
which he showed (whenever it did not mil- 
itate against his duty) toward the deserted 
and suffering families of the tories in the 
state of JNew York, was the cause of his 
becoming unpopular with no inconsidera- 
ble class of people in that state. On the 
other side, he had conceived an unconquer- 
able aversion to many of the persons who 
were entrusted with the disposal of tory 
property, because ho believed them to have 
been guilty of peculations and other infa- 
mous practices. But although the enmity 
between him and the sequestrators was ac- 
rimonious as mutual ; yet he lived in hab- 
its of amity with the most respectable char- 



LIFE or FUT.\AM. 'JT 

acters in public departments as well as in 
private life. 

His character was also respected by the 
enemy. He had been acquainted with 
many of the principal officers in a former 
war. As flags frequently passed between 
the outposts, during his conlinuance on the 
hues, it was a common practice to forward 
newspapers by them ; and as those printed 
by Rivington, the Royal printer in New 
York, were infamous for the falsehoods 
with which they abounded, General Put- 
nam once sent a packet to his old friend 
General Robertson, with this billet : '' Ma- 
jor General Putnam presents his compli- 
ments to Major General Robertson, and 
sends him some American newspapers for 
his perusal — when General Robertson shall 
have done with ttem, it is requested they 
be given to Rivington, in order that he may 
print some truth." 

Late in the year w^e left, the lines and re- 
paired to the Highlands ; for, upon the loss 
of Fort Montgomery, the commander-in- 
chief determined to build another fortifica- 
tion for the defence of the river. His Ex- 
cellency accordingly wrote to General Put- 
nam, to fix upon the spot. After reconnoi- 
tering all the different places proposed, and 
revolving in his mind their advantages for 
ofte;nce on the water, and defence on the 



98 LIFS OF PUTNAM. 

land, he fixed upon West Pol\t. It is no 
vulgar praise to say, that to him belongs 
the glory of having chosen this rock of our 
military salvation. The position for water* 
batteries, which might sweep the channel 
where the river formed a right angle, made 
it the most proper of any for commanding 
the navigation ; while the rocky ridges, that 
rose in awful sublimity behind each other, 
rendered it impregnable, and even incapa- 
ble of being invested by less than twenty 
thousand men. The British, who consid- 
ered this post as a sort of American Gib- 
raltar, never attempted it but by the treach- 
ery of an American officer. All the world 
knows that this project failed, and that 
West Point continued to be the receptacle 
of every thing valuable in military prepara- 
tions to the present day. 

In the month of January, 1778, when a 
snow two feet deep lay on the earth. Gen- 
eral Parsons' brigade went to West Point 
and broke ground. Want of covering for 
the troops, together with want of tools and 
materials for the works, made the prospect 
truly goomy and discouraging. It was ne- 
cessary that means should be found, though 
our currency was depreciated and our trea- 
sury exhausted. The estimates and requi- 
sitions of Colonel La Radiere, the engineer 
who laid out the works, altogether aispro- 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 99 

portioned to our circumstances, served only 
to put us in mind of our poverty, and, as it 
were, to satirize our resources. His petu- 
lant behavior and unaccommodating dispo- 
sition added further embarrassments. It 
was then that the patriotism of Governor 
Chnton shone in full lustre. His exertions 
to furnish supplies can never be too much 
commended. His influence, arising from 
his popularity, was unlimited ; yet he hesi- 
tated not to put all his popularity at risk, 
whenever the federal interests demanded. 
Notwithstanding the impediments that op- 
posed our progress, with his aid, before the 
opening of the campaign, the works were in 
great forwardness. 

According to a resolution of Congress, an 
inquiry was to be made into the cause of 
military disasters. Major General M'Dou- 
gall. Brigadier General Huntington, and 
Colonel Wigglesworth, composed the Court 
of Inquiry on the loss of Fort Montgomery. 
Upon full knowledge and mature delibera- 
tion of facts on the spot, they reported the 
loss to have been occasioned by want of 
men, and not by any fault of the command- 
ers. 

General Putnam, who, during the inves- 
tigation, was relieved from duty, as soon as 
Congress had approved the report, took 
command of the right wing of the grand ar- 



100 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

my, under the orders of the genera] in chief. 
This was just after the battle of Monmouth, 
when the three armies which had, last year, 
acted separately, joined at White Plains. 
Our effective force, in one camp, was at no 
other lime so respectable as at this juncture. 
The army consisted of sixty regular regi- 
ments of foot formed into fifteen brigades, 
four battalions of artillery, four regiments of 
horse, and several corps of state troops. But 
as the enemy kept close w^ithin their lines 
on York Island, nothing could be attempt- 
ed . To w ar d s th e en d o f A u t u mn we bro k e ' 
up the camp, and w^ent first to Fredericks- 
burgh and thence to winter quarters. 

Jn order to cover the country adjoining 
to the Sound, and to support the garrison of 
West Point, in case of an attack, Major 
General Putnam was stationed for the win- 
ter at Reading, in Connecticut. He had 
under his orders the brigade of New Hamp- 
shire, the two brigades of Connecticut, the 
corps of infantry commanded by Hazen, and 
that of cavalry by Sheldon. 

The troops, who had been badly fed, bad- 
ly clothed, and worse paid, by brooding 
over their grievances in the leisure and in=- 
activity of winter quarters, began to think 
them intolerable. The Connecticut brig^ 
ades formed the design of marching to Hart- 
ford, where the general assembly was then 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. lOl 

in session, and of demanding redress at the 
point of the bayonet. Word having been 
brought to General Putnam that the second 
brigade was under arms for this purpose, he 
mounted his horse, galloped to the canton- 
ment, and thus addressed them : " My 
brave lads, whither are you going ? Do you 
intend to desert your officers, and to invite 
the enemy to follow you into the country ^ 
Whose cause have you been fighting and 
suffering so long in — is it not your own '( 
Have you no property, no parents, wives, 
or children '( You have behaved like men 
so far — all the world is full of your praise — 
and posterity will stand astonished at your 
deeds : But not if you spoil all at last. Don't 
you consider how much the country is dis- 
tressed by the war, and that your officers 
have not been any better paid than your- 
selves? But we ail expect better times, 
and that the country will do us ample jus- 
tice. Let us all stand by one another then, 
and fight it out hke brave soldiers. Think 
what a shame it would be for Connecticut 
men to run away from their officers !" Af- 
ter the several regiments had received the 
general as he rode along the line with drums 
beating and presented arms, the sergeants, 
who had then the command, brought the 
men to an order, in which position they 
continued while he was speaking-. When 
9^ 



102 r.IFE OF PUTNAM. 

he had clone, he directed the acting major 
of brigade to give the word for them to 
shoulder, march to their regimental parades, 
and lodge arms ! all which they executed 
with promptitude and apparent good hu- 
mor. One soldier only, who had been the 
most active, was confined in the quarter- 
guard : from whence, at night, he attempt- 
ed to make his escape. But the sentinel, 
who had also been in the mutiny, shot him 
dead on the spot, and thus the affair subsi- 
ded. 

About the middle of the winter, while 
General Putnam was on a visit to his out- 
post at Horse-Neck, he found Governor 
Pryon advancing upon that town with a 
corps of fifteen hundred men. To oppose 
these, General Putnam had only a picket of 
one hundred and fifty men, and two iron 
field pieces, without horses or drag-ropes. 
He however planted his cannon on the high 
ground by the meeting-house, and retarded 
their approach by firing several times, until, 
perceiving the horse (supported by the in- 
fantry) about to charge, he ordered the pick-^ 
et to provide for their safety by retiring to a 
swamp inaccessible to horse ; and secured 
his own by plunging down the steep preci- 
pice at the church upon a full trot. This 
precipice is so steep, where he descended, 
a? to have artificial stairs composed of near-? 



LIFE OF PUTNAI\I. 103' 

iy one hundred stone steps for the accom- 
modation of foot passengers. There the dra- 
goons, who were but a sword's length fronn 
him, stopped short — for the declivity was so 
abrupt that they ventured not to follow : — 
and before they could gain the valley by 
going round the brow of the hill in the or- 
dinary road, he was far enough beyond 
their reach. He continued his route unmo- 
lested to Stamtbrd, from whence, having 
strengthened his picket by the function of 
some militia, he came back again, and in 
turn pursued Governor Try on in his retreat. 
As he rode down the precipice, one ball, of 
the many fired at him, went through his 
beaver. But Governor Try on, by way of 
compensation for spoiling his hat, sent him 
soon afterwards, as a present, a complete 
suit of clothes. 

Jn the campaign of 1779, which termina- 
ted the career of General Putnam's servi- 
ces, he commanded the Maryland line, post- 
ed at Buttermilk falls, about two miles be- 
low West Point. He was happy in pos- 
sessing the friendship of the officers of that 
hne, and in living on terms- of hospitality 
with them. Indeed, there was no family in 
the army that lived better than his own. 
The general, his second son. Major Daniel 
Putnam, and the writer of these memoirs, 
composed that family. This campaign, 



104 LIFE OF PllT.VAM. 

principally spent in strengthening the works 
of West Fonit, was only signalized for the 
storm of Stony Point, by the light infantry 
under the conduct of General Wayne, and 
the surprise of the post of Povvle's Hook by 
the corps under the command of Colonel 
Henry Lee. When the army quitted the 
field, and marched to Morristown into win- 
ter quarters, General Putnam's family went 
into Connecticut for a few weeks. In De- 
cember the general began his journey to 
Morristown. Upon the road betw^een Pom- 
fret and Hartford, he felt an unusual torpor 
slowly pervading his right hand and foot. 
This heaviness crept gradually on, and until 
it had deprived him of the use of his limbs 
on that side in a considerable degree, before 
he reached the house of his friend. Colonel 
Wadsworth. Still he was unwilling to con- 
sider his disorder of the paralytic kind, and 
endeavored to shake it off by exertion* 
Having found that impossible, a temporary 
dejection, disguised however under a veil of 
assumed cheerfulness, succeeded. But rea- 
son, philosophy, and religion, soon recon- 
ciled him to his fate. In that situation he 
remained, favored with such a portion of 
bodily activity as enabled him to walk and 
ride moderately, for many years. He re- 
tained unimpaired his relish for enjoyment, 
his love of pleasantry, his strength of mem* 



/^ 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 105 

ory, and all the faculties of his mincl. As 
a proof that his powers of memory were not 
weakened, it ought to be observed, that at 
a late period he repeated, from recollection, 
all the adventures of his life which are here 
recorded, and which had formerly been com- 
municated to the compiler in detached con- 
versations. 

In patient, yet fearless expectation of the 
approach of the King of Terrors, whom 
he had full often faced in the field of blood, 
the christian hero enjoyed in domestic re- 
tirement the fruit of his early industry* 
Having in youth provided a competent sub- 
sistence for old age, he was secured from 
the danger of penury and distress, to which 
so many officers and soldiers, worn out in 
the pubhc service, had been reduced. / He 
closed his honorable and eventful life on the 
29th of May, 17D0, at Brooklyn, Connecti- 
cut, and was interred in the cemetery there. 
The following eulogium was pronounced at 
his grave by Dr. A. Waldo. 

''Those venerable relics ! once delighted 
in the endearing domestic virtues which 
constitute the excellent neighbor — husband 
—parent— and worthy brother ! liberal and 
substantial in his friendship; unsuspicious, 
open, and generous ; just and sincere in 
dealing : a benevolent citizen of the world, 



•- 



i06 LIFE OF PUTNAM. 

he consecrated in his bosom the noble qual- 
ities of an Honest Man. 

'• Born a Hei^o^ whom nature taught and 
cherished in the lap of innumerable toils and 
dangers, he was terrible in battle ! But, 
from the amiableness of his heart, when car- 
nage ceased, his humanity spread over the 
jield^ like the refreshing zephyrs of a sum- 
mer's evening ! The prisoner — the woun- 
ded — the sick — the forlorn— experienced the 
delicate sympathy of this Soldier's Pillar* 
The poor and needy of every description, 
received the charitable bounties of this 
Christian Soldier. 

'' He pitied littleness— loved goodness— ad- 
mired greatness, and even aspired to its glo- 
rious summit ! The friend, the servant, and 
almost unparalleled lover of his country — 
worn with honorable age, and the former 
toils o^war — Putnam rests from his labors ! 

' Till mouldering worlds and trembling systems burst ! 

♦ When the last trump shall renovate his dust — 
' Still by the mandate of eternal truth, 

* His soul will flourish in immortal youth !' 

' This all who knew him, know ; this all who lov'd him, 
tell.' " 

Dr. Timothy Dwight, late President of 
Yale College, wrote the following inscrip- 
tion, which is engraved on his monument, 
with some trifling alterations, made merely 
to consult the capacity of the stone : 



LIFE OF PUTNAM. 107 

This Monument 

Is erected to the memory of 

The Honorable Israel Putnam, Esq ; 

Major General in the Armies 

of 

The United States of America : 

Who was born at Salem, 

In the Province of Massachusetts, 

On the 7th day of January, A. D. 1718: 

And died at Brooklyn, 

In the State of Connecticut, 

On the 29th day of May, A. D. 1790. 

Passenger, 

If thou art a Soldier, 

Go not away 

Till thou hast dropped a tear 

Over the dust of a Hero, 

Who, ever tenderly attentive 

To the lives and happiness of his men. 

Dared to lead 

Where any one dared to follow. 

If thou art a Patriot, 

Remember with gratitude 

How much thou and thy country 

Owe to the disinterested and gallant exertions 

Of the Patriot 

Who sleeps beneath this marble. 

If thou art an honest, generous, and worthy man, 

Render a sincere and cheerful tribute of respect 

To a Man 

Whose generosity was singular ; 

Whose honesty was proverbial ; 

And who 

With a slender education. 

With small advantages. 

And without Powerful Friends, 

Raised himself to universal esteem, 

And to offices of eminent distinction. 

By Personal Worth, 

And by the diligent services 

OfaUsehil lafe. 



APPENDIX 



From a review of the preceding memoirs^ 
We find that courage, enterprise, activity, 
and perseverance were the first character- 
istics of the mind of General Putnam. There 
is a kind of mechanical courage, the off- 
spring of pride, habit, or discipline, that may 
push a coward not only to perform his duty 
but even to venture on acts of heroism. Put- 
nam's courage was of a different species. It 
was ever attended with a serenity of soul, a 
clearness of conception, a degree of self-pos- 
session, and a superiority of all the vicisi- 
tudes of fortune, entirely distinct from any 
thing that can be procured by the ferment 
of blood, and flutter of spirits ; which not 
tinfrequently precipitate men to action,when 
stimulated by intoxication or some other 
transient exhiliration. The heroic charac- 
ter, thus founded on constitution and ani- 
mal spirits, cherished by education and 
ideas of personal freedom, confirmed by 
temperance and habits of exercise, was 
completed by the dictate of reason, the love 
of his country, and an invincible sense of 
duty. Such were the qualities and princi- 
ples, that enabled him to meet unappalled 
the shafts of adversity, and to pass in tri- 
umph through the furnace of aflSiction. 
10 



110 APPEXDIX. 

The effect of his gradual acquisition of 
property, generally favorable to individual 
virtue and public felicity, should not, how- 
ever, be passed over in silence. U there is 
something fascinating in the charms of a 
country life, from the contemplation of beau- 
tiful landscapes ; there is likewise something 
elevating to the soul, in the consciousness of 
being lord of the soil, and having the power 
of creating them. The man can scarcely be 
guilty of a sordid action, or of even descen- 
dmg to an ungenerous thought, who, remo- 
ved from the apprehension of want, sees his 
farm daily meliorating and ass!iming what- 
ever appearance he pleases to prescribe. 
This situation converts the farmer into a 
species of rural philosopher, by inspiring an 
honest pride in his rank as a freeman, flat- 
tering the natural propensity for personal 
independence, and nourishing an unlimited 
hospitality and philanthropy in his social 
character. 

While General Putnam was a prisoner 
in Canada, at the house of Colonel Schuy- 
ler, he became acquainted with Mrs. Howe, 
a fair captive, whose history would not be 
read without emotion, if it could be WTitten 
in the same affecting manner in which I 
have often heard it told. She was still 
young and handsome herself, though she 
had two daughters of marriageable age. 



APPENDIX. Ill 

Distress, which had taken somewhat from 
the original redundancy of her bloom, and 
added a softening paleness to her cheeks, 
rendered her appearance the more engag- 
ing. Her face, that seemed to have been 
formed for the assemblage of dimples and 
smiles, was clouded with care. The natu- 
ral sweetness was not, however, soured by 
despondency and petulence ; but chastened 
by humility and resignation. This mild 
daughter of sorrow looked as if she had 
known the day of prosperity, when serenity 
and gladness of soul were the inmates of 
her bosom. That day was past, and the 
once lively features now assumed a tender 
melancholy, which witnessed her irrepara- 
ble loss. She needed not the customary 
W'eeds of mourning, or the fallacious page- 
antry of wo, to prove her widowed state. 
She was in that state of affliction, when the 
excess is so far abated as to permit the sub- 
ject to be drawn into conversation without 
opening the wound afresh. It is then ra- 
ther a source of pleasure than pain to dwell 
upon the circumstances in narration. Ev- 
ery thing conspired to make her story in- 
teresting. Her first husband had been kil- 
led and scalped by the Indians some years 
before. By an unexpected assault in 1756 
upon Fort Dummer, where she then hap- * 
pened to be present with Mr. Howe, her 



112 APPENDIX. 

second husband, the savages carried the 
fort, murdered the greater part of the garri- 
son, mangled in death her husband, and led 
her away with seven children into captivi- 
ty. She was for some months kept with 
them ; and during their rambles she was 
frequently on the point of perishing with 
hunger, and as often subjected to hardships, 
seemingly intolerable to one of so dehcate 
a frame. Some time after the career of her 
miseries began, the Indians selected a cou- 
ple of their young men to marry her daugh- 
ters. The fright und disgust which the in- 
telligence of this intention occasioned to 
these poor young creatures, added infinitely 
to the sorrows and perplexities of their 
frantic mother. To prevent the hated con- 
nexion, all the activity of female resource 
was called into exertion. She found an 
opportunity of conveying to the governor a 
petition, that her daughters might be receiv- 
ed mto a convent for the sake of securing 
the salvation of their souls. Happily the 
pious fraud succeeded. 

About the same time the savages separa- 
ted, and carried off her other five children 
into different tribes. She was ransomed by 
an elderly French officer for four hundred 
livres. Of no avail were the cries of this 
tender mother — a mother desolated by the 
loss of her children, who were thus torn 



APPENDIX. 113 

from her fond embraces and removed many 
hundred miles from ^ach other, into the ut- 
most recesses of Canada. With them 
(could they have been kept together) she 
would most willingly have wandered to the 
extremities of the world, and accepted as a 
desirable portion the cruel lot of slavery for 
life. But she was precluded from the sweet 
hope of ever beholding them again. The 
insufferable pang of parting, and the idea of 
eternal separation, planted the arrow of de- 
spair deep in her soul. 'J hough all the 
world was no better than a desert, and all 
its inhabitants were thefi indifferent to her — 
yet the loveliness of her appearance in sor- 
row had awakened affections, which, in the 
aggravation of her troubles, were to become 
a new source of affliction. 

The officer who bought her of the Indians 
had a son, who also held a commission, and 
resided with his father. During her contin- 
uance in the same house, at St. Johns, the 
double attachment of the father and the son 
rendered her situation extremely distressing. 
It is true, the calmness of age delighted to 
gaze respectfully on her beauty, but the im- 
petuosity of youth was fired to madness by 
the sight of her charms. One day, the son, 
whose attentions had been long lavished 
upon her in vain, finding her alone in a 
chamber, forcibly seized her hand, and sol- 
10^ 



114 ' APPENDIX. 

emnly declared that he would now satiate 
the passion which she had so long refused 
to indulge. She recurred to entreaties, 
struggles, and tears, those prevalent female 
weapons, which the distraction of danger, 
not less than the promptness of genius, is 
wont to supply : while he, in the deliri- 
um of vexation and desire, snatched a dag- 
ger, and swore he would put an end to her 
life if she persisted to struggle. Mrs. Howe^ 
assuming the dignity of conscious virtue, 
told him it was what she most ardently 
wished, and begged him to plunge the poign- 
ard through her heart, since the mutual im* 
portunities and jealousies of such rivals, had 
rendered her hfe, though innocent, more 
irksome and insupportable than death itself. 
Struck with a momentary compunction, he 
seemed to relent, and relax his hold-^and 
she, availing herself of his irresolution, or 
absence of mind, escaped down the stairs. 
In her disordered state, she told the whole 
transaction to his father, who directed her, 
in future, to sleep in a small bed at the foot 
of that in which his wife lodged. The af- 
fair soon reached the governor's ears, and 
the young officer was, shortly afterwards, 
sent on a tour of duty to Detroit, 

This gave her a short respite ; but she 
dreaded his return, and the humiliating in- 
sults for which she might be reserved. Her 



APPENDIX. 116 

children, too, were ever present to her mel- 
anchoj}^ mind. A stranger, a widow, a cap- 
tive, she knew not where to apply for relief* 
She had heard of the name of Schuyler — ■ 
she was yet to learn, that it was only an- 
other appellation for the friend of suffering 
humanity. As that excellent man was on 
his way from Quebec to the Jerseys, under 
a parol for a limited time, she came with 
feeble and trembling steps to him. The 
same maternal passion, which sometimes 
overcomes the timidity of nature in the birds, 
when plundered of their callow nestlings, 
emboldened her, notwhhstanding her native 
diffidence, to disclose these griefs which 
were ready to devour her in silence. While 
her delicate aspect was heightened to a 
glowing blush, for fear of offiending by an 
inexcusable importunity, or of transgressing 
the rules of propriety, by representing her» 
self as being an object of admiration ; she 
told, with artless simplicity, all the story of 
her woes. Colonel Schuyler, from that 
moment, became her protector, and endeav- 
ored to procure her liberty. The person 
who purchased her from the savages, un- 
wilhng to part with so fair a purchase, de- 
manded a thousand livres for her ransom. 
But Colonel Schuyler, on his return to Que- 
bec, obtained from the governor an order, in 
consequence of which, Mrs. Howe was giv- 



116 APPENDIX. 

en up to him for four hundred livres ; nor 
did his active goodness rest, until every one 
of her five ^ons w^ere restored to her. 

Business having made it necessary that 
Colonel Schuyler should precede the priso- 
ners who were exchanged, he recommend- 
ed his fair captive to the protection of his 
friend Putnam. She had just recovered 
from the measles when the party were pre- 
paring to set off for New England. By this 
time the young French officer had returned, 
with his passion rather increased than aba- 
ted by absence. He pursued her wherso- 
ever she went, and, although he could make 
no advances in her affection, he seemed re- 
solved by perseverance to carry his point. 
Mrs. Howe, terrified by his treatment, was 
obliged to keep constantly near Major Put- 
nam, who informed the young officer, that 
he should protect that lady at the risk of his 
hfe. However, this amorous and rash lov- 
er, in whose boiling veins such an agitation 
was excited, that while he was speaking of 
her the blood^' would frequently gush to his 
nostrils, followed the prisoners to Lake 
Champlain ; and when the boat in which 
the fair captive was embarked had pushed 
from the shore, he jumped into the lake, and 

* This physical efL-ct, vvon-Ierful as it may appear, is so 
far from being a fictitious embellishment, that it was proved 
hy the most f^ol^mri testimon}' of (several person? then livin!^. 



APPENDIX. U7 

swam after her until it rowed out of sight. 
Whether he perished in this distracted state 
of mind, or returned to the shore, is not 
known. 

In the long march from captivity, through 
an inhospitable wilderness,encumbered with 
five small children, she suffered incredible 
hardships. Though endowed with mascu- 
line fortitude, she was truly feminine in 
strength, and must have fainted by the way, 
had it not been for the assistance of Major 
Putnam. There were a thousand good of- 
fices which the helplessness of her condition 
demanded, and which the gentleness of his 
nature delighted to perform. He assisted 
in leading her little ones, and in carrying 
them over the swampy gjrounds, and runs of 
water, with which their course was fre- 
quently intersected. He mingled his own 
mess with that of the widow and the father- 
less, and assisted them in supplying and pre- 
paring their provisions. Upon arriving with- 
in the settlements, they experienced a re- 
ciprocal regret at separation, and were only 
consoled by the expectation of soon ming- 
ling in the embraces of their former ac- 
quaintances and dearest connexions. 

After the conquest of Canada, in 1760, 
she made a journey to Quebec, in order to 
bring back her two daughters whom she 
had left in a convent. She found one of 



118 APPENDIX. 

them married to a French officer. The 
other, having contracted a great fondness 
■for the religions sisterhood, with reluctance 
consented to leave them and return. 

A few years previous to the war between 
Great Britain and America, a question of 
some consequence arose respecting the ti- 
tle of the lands in Hinsdale, (the town in 
which Mrs. Howe resided,) insomuch that 
it was deemed expedient that an agent 
should be sent to England to advocate the 
claims of the town. It may be mentioned 
as a proof of the acknowledged superiority 
of the standing and address of this gentle- 
woman, that she was universally designated 
for the mission. But the dispute was for- 
tunately accommodated to the satisfaction 
of the people, without their being obliged to 
make use of her talents. 

In the year 1776, when General Wash- 
ington expected that the British were about 
to attack New i'ork, he sent the following 
orders and instructions for Major General 
Putnam : 

" As there al-e the best reasons to believe 
that the enemy's fleet and army, which left 
JNantasket Road last Wednesday evening, 
are bound to New York, to endeavor to 
possess that important post, and, if possible, 
to secure the communication by Hudson 
River to Canada ; it must be our care to 



APPENDIX. 119 

prevent them from accomplishing their de- 
signs. To that end 1 have detached Brig- 
adier General Heath with the whole body 
of riflemen and five battalions of the conti- 
nental army, by the way of Norwich, in 
Connecticut, to New York. These, by an 
express arrived yesterday from General 
Heath, I have reason to believe, are in New 
York. Six more battalions, under General 
Sullivan, marched this morning by the same 
route, and will, 1 hope, arrive there in eight 
or ten days at farthest. The rest of the ar- 
my will immediately follow in divisions, 
leaving only a convenient space between 
each division to prevent confusion, and want 
of accommodation, upon their march. You 
will no doubt make the best despatch in 
getting to New York. Upon your arrival 
there, you will assume the command, and 
immediately proceed in continuing to exe- 
cute the j)lan proposed by Major General 
Lee, for iortifying that city, and securing 
the passes of the East and North Rivers. 
If, upon consultation with the brigadiers 
general, and engineers, any alteration in that 
p/an is thought necessary, you are at libert}'- 
to make it ; cautiously avoiding to break in 
too much upon the main design, unless 
where it may be apparently necessary so to 
do, and that by the general voice and opin- 
ion of the gentlemen above mentioned. 



V20 APPENDIX 

" You will meet the Quarter Master Gen^ 
era], Colonel Mifflin, and Commissary Gen- 
eral,^ at New York. As these are both 
men of excellent talents in their different 
departments, you will do well to give them 
all the authority and assistance they require; 
and should a council of war be necessary, it 
is my direction they assist at it. 

" Your long service and experience will, 
better than my particular directions at this 
distance, point out to you the works most 
proper to be first raised ; and your perse^ 
verance, activity and zeal, will lead you 
(without my recommending it) to exert ev- 
ery nerve to disappoint the enemy's designs. 

" Devoutly praying that the Power which 
has hitherto sustained the American arms, 
may continue to bless them with the divine 
protection, I bid you — farewell. 

" Given at Head Quarters, in Cambridge, 
this 29th of March, 1776. 

" Geo. Washington.'" 

Invested with these commands. General 
Putnam traveled by long and expeditious 
stages to New York. His first precaution, 
upon his arrival, was to prevent disturbance 
or surprise in the night season. With these 

* Colonel Joseph Trumbull, eldeet sou to the late gover- 
nor of that name. 



APFEXDIX. 121 

objects jn view, after posting the necessary 
guards, he issued his Orders. He institu- 
ted, hkewise, other wholesome regulations 
to meUorate the pohce of the troops, and to 
preserve the good agreement that subsisted 
between them and the citizens. 

Congress having intimated a desire of 
consulting with the commander in chief, on 
the critical posture of affairs, his excellenc}^ 
repaired to Philadelphia accordingly, and 
was absent from the twenty-first of May, 
until the sixth of June. General Putnam, 
who commanded in that interval, had it in 
charge to open all letters directed to Gen- 
eral Washington on public service^ and, if 
important, after regulating his conduct by 
their contents, to forward them by express ; 
to expedite the works then erecting ; to be- 
gin others which were specified ; to estab- 
lish signals for communicating an alarm ; to 
guard against the possibility of surprise ; to 
secure well the powder magazine ; to aug- 
ment by every possible means in his power 
the quantity of catridges ; and to send Brig- 
adier General Lord Stirling to put the posts 
in the Highlands into a proper condition of 
defence. He had also a private and confi- 
dential instruction, to afford whatever aid 
might be required by the provincial con- 
gress of New York, for apprehending cer- 
tain of their disaffected citizens ; and as it 
U 



122 App£Nm:s. 

would be most convenient to take the de- 
tachment for this service from the troops on 
Long Island, under the command of Brig- 
adier General Greene, it was recommend- 
ed that this officer should be advised of the 
plan, and that the execution should be con- 
ducted with secrecy and celerity, as well 
as with decency and good order. In the 
records of the army are preserved the daily 
orders which were issued in the absence of 
the commander in chief, who, on his re- 
turn, was not only satisfied that the works 
had been prosecuted with all possible des- 
patch, but also that the other duties had 
been properly discharged. 

The winter's campaign of 1777 (for our 
ti'oops constantly kept the field after regain- 
ing a foothold in the Jerseys) has never yet 
been faithfully and feelingly described. The 
sudden restoration of our cause from the- 
very verge of ruin, was interwoven with 
such a tissue of inscrutable causes and ex- 
traordinary events, that, fearful of doing the 
subject greater injustice by a passing dis- 
quisition than by a purposed silence, 1 leave 
it to the leisure of abler pens. The ill pol- 
icy of the British doubtless contributed to 
accelerate this event. For the manner, im- 
politic as inhuman, in which they managed 
their temporary conquests, tended evident- 
ly to alienate ih^j affections of their ad he- 



APPENDIX. 123 

rents, to confirm the wavering in an oppo- 
site inteiest, to rouae the supine into activi- 
ty, to assemble the dispersed to the stand- 
ard of America, and to infuse a spirit of re- 
volt into the minds of those men v^ho had, 
from necessity, submitted to their power. 
Their conduct in warring with fire and 
sword against the imbecihty of youth and 
the decrepitude of age ; against the arts, the 
sciences, the curious inventions and the el- 
egant improvements in civilized life ; against 
the melancholy widow, the miserable or- 
phan, the peaceable professor of humane 
literature, and the sacred minister of the 
gospel, seemed to operate as powerfully as 
if purposely intended to kindle the dormant 
spark of resistance into an inextinguishable 
flame, if we add to the black catalogue 
of provocations already enumerated, their 
insatiable rapacity in plundering friends and 
foes indiscriminately ; their libidinous bru- 
tality in violating the chastity of the female 
sex ; their more than Gothic ra^ in defac- 
ing private w^rilings, public records, libra- 
ries of learning, dwellings of individuals, ed- 
ifices for education, and temples of the dei- 
ty ; together with their insufferable ferocity 
(unprecedented indeed among civihzed na- 
tions) in murdering on the field of battle the 
wounded while begging for mercy ; in cau- 
sing their prisoners to famish with hunger 



124 APPENDIX. 

and cold in prisons and prison ships ; and in 
carrying their nnalice beyond death itself, 
by denying the decent rites of sepulture to 
the dead — we shall not be astonished that 
the yeomanry in the two Jerseys, when the 
first glimmering of hope began to break in 
upon them, rose as one man, with the un-, 
alterable resolution to perish in the gener- 
ous cause or expel their merciless invaders. 

The principal officers, stationed at a va- 
riety of well chosen, and at some almost in- 
accessible positions, seemed all to be actu- 
ated by the same soul, and only to vie with 
each other in giving proofs of vigilence, en- 
terprise and valor. From what has been 
said respecting the scantiness of our aggre- 
gate force, it will be concluded that the 
number of men, under the orders of each, 
was indeed very small. But the uncom^ 
mon alertness of the troops, who were in- 
cessantly hovering round the enemy in 
scouts, and the constant communication 
they kepf between the several stations most 
contiguous to each other, (agreeably to the 
instructions of the general in chief,) togeth- 
er with their readiness in giving, and confi- 
dence of receiving, such reciprocal aid as 
the exigencies might require, served to sup- 
ply the defect of force. 

This manner of doing duty not only put 
our own posts beyond the reach of sudden 



APPENDIX. 125 

insult and surprise, but so extremely ha- 
rassed and intimidated the enemy, that for- 
agers were seldom sent out by them, and 
never except in very large parties. Gen- 
eral Dickenson, who commanded on Gen- 
eral Putnam's left, discovered about the 20th 
of January, a foraging party consisting of 
about 400 men, on the opposite side of the 
Mill Stojie, two miles from Somerset court- 
house. As the bridge was possessed and 
defended by three held pieces, so that it 
could not be passed, General Dickenson, at 
the head of four hundred mihtia, broke the 
ice, crossed the river where the water was 
about three feet deep, resolutely attacked 
and totally defeated the foragers. Upon 
their abandoning the convoy, a few priso- 
ners, forty wagons, and more than a hun- 
dred draught horses, with a considerable 
booty of cattle and sheep, fell into his hands. 
Nor were our operations on General Put- 
nam's right flank less fortunate. To give 
countenance to the numerous friends of the 
British government in the county of Mon- 
mouth, appears to have been a principal 
motive with Sir VVilham Howe for stretch- 
ing the chain of his cantonments (by his 
own confession previously to his disaster) 
rather too far. After that chain became 
broken, as 1 have already related, by the 
blows at Trenton and Princeton, he was 
11* 



120 APPENDIX. 

obliged to collect, during the rest of the win- 
ter, the useless remains in his barracks at 
Brunswick. In the mean time General 
Putnam was much more successful in his 
attempts to protect our dispersed and dis- 
pirited friends in the same district ; who, en- 
vironed on every side by envenomed adver- 
saries, remained inseparably rivited in affec- 
tion to American Independence. He first 
detached Colonel Gurney, and afterwards 
Major Davis, with such parties of mihtia as 
could be spared for their support. Several 
skirmishes ensued, in which our people al^ 
ways had the advantage. They took, at 
different times, many prisoners, horses and 
wagons, from foraging parlies. In effect, 
so well did they cover the country, as to in- 
duce some of the most respectable inhabi- 
tants to declare, that the security of the 
persons, as well as the salvation of the prop- 
erty, of many friends to freedom, was owing 
to the spirited exertions of these two detach- 
ments : who, at the time that they rescued 
the country from the tyranny of tories, af- 
forded an opportunity for the militia to re- 
cover from their consternation, to embody 
themselves in warlike array, and to stand 
on their defence. 

During this period, Lord Cornwallis sent 
out another foraging party towards Bound- 
brook. General Putnam, having received 



APPENDIX. 127 

notice from his emmissaries, detached Ma- 
jor Smith, who had formed an ambush, at- 
tacked the enemy, killed several horses, 
took a few prisoners and sixteen baggage 
wagons, without sustaining any injury. By 
such operations, our hero, in the course of 
the winter, captured nearly a thousand pris- 
oners. 

On our side, we have seen that the old 
continental army expired with the year 
1776 ; since which, invention had been tor- 
tured with expedients, and zeal with efforts, 
to levy another; for on the success of the 
recruiting service depended the salvation of 
the country. The success was such as not 
to puff us up to presumption, or depress us 
to despair. The army in the Jerseys under 
the orders of the general in chief, consisted 
of all the troops raised south of the Hud- 
son ; that in the northern department of the 
New Hampshire brigade, two brigades of 
Massachusetts, and the brigade of New 
York, together with some irregular corps ; 
and that in the Highlands of the remaining 
two brigades of Massachusetts, the Con- 
necticut line consisting of two brigades, the 
brigade of Rhode Island, and one regiment 
of New York' Upon hearing of the loss of 
Ticpnderoga, and the progress of the Brit- 
ish towards Albany, General Washington 
prdered the n^orthern army to be reipforced 



128 APPENDIX. 

with the two brigades of Massachusetts 
then in the Highlands — and, upon finding 
the army under his immechate command 
outnumbered by that of Sir William Howe, 
which had by the circuitous route of the 
Chesapeake invaded Pennsylvania, he also 
called from the Highlands one of the Con- 
necticut brigades and that of Rhode Island, 
to his own assistance. 

In the neighborhood of General Putnam 
there was no enemy capable of exciting 
alarms. The army left at New York seem- 
ed only designed for its defence. In it were 
several entire corps, composed of tories who 
had flocked to the British standard. There 
was, besides, a band of lurking miscreants, 
not properly enrolled, who stayed chiefly 
at Westchester ; from whence they infest- 
ed the country between the two armies, 
pillaged the cattle, and carried off the peace- 
able inhabitants. It was an unworthy pol- 
icy in British generals to encourage ban- 
ditti. The whig inhabitants on the edge of 
our lines, and still lower down, who had 
been plundered in a merciless manner, de- 
layed not to strip the tories in return. Peo- 
ple most nearly connected and allied, fre- 
quently became most exasperated and in- 
veterate in malice. Then the ties of fellow- 
ship were broken — then friendship itself be- 
ing soured to enmity, the mind readily gave 



APPENDIX. 1^9 

way to private revenge, uncontrolled retal- 
iation, and all the deforming passions that 
disgrace humanity. Enormities, almost 
without a name, were perpetrated — at the 
description of which, the bosom not frozen 
to apathy must glow with a mixture of pity 
and indignation. To prevent the predato- 
ry incursions from below, and to cover the 
county of Westchester, General Putnam 
detached from his head quarters at Peeks- 
kill, Meigs' regiment, which, in the course 
of the campaign, struck several partisan 
strokes, and achieved the objects for which 
it was sent. He likewise took measures, 
without noise or ostentation, to secure him^ 
self from being surprised and carried with- 
in the British lines by the tories, who had 
formed a plan for the purpose. The infor- 
mation of this intended enterprise, convey- 
ed to him through several channels, was 
corroborated by that obtained and transmit- 
ted by the commander in chief. 

In the year 1780, affairs were not so pros^ 
perous in the state of New Jersey as when 
General Putnam commanded there. In- 
deed, it seemed as if his name had been a 
protection to the inhabitants ; for during the 
summer of that 5^ear the British troops 
made frequent incursions into the country, 
and committed numerous attrocities. In the 
month of June, a large body of the enemy, 



130 APPENDIX. 

commanded by General Knyphausen, land- 
ed at Elizabethtown Point, and proceeded 
into the country. They were harrassed in 
their march by Colonel Dayton and the 
troops under his command, but with too 
feeble a force to arrest the enemy's progress. 
When they arrived at Connecticut Farms, 
according to their usual custom, they burnt 
the Presbyterian church, the parsonage 
house, and a considerable part of the village- 
But the most cruel and wanton act that was 
perpetrated during this incursion, was the 
murder of Mrs. Caldwell, the wife of the 
Rev. Mr. Caldwell, of Ehzabethtown. 

This amiable woman, seeing the enemy 
advancing, retired with her housekeeper, a 
child of tfiree years old, an infant of eight 
months, and a little maid, to a room secur- 
ed on all sides by stone walls, except at a 
window opposite the enemy. She prudent- 
ly took this precaution to avoid the danger 
of transient shot, should the ground be dis- 
puted near that place, which happened not 
to be the case ; neither was there any firing 
from either party near the house, until the 
fatal moment when Mrs. Caldwell, unsus- 
picious of any immediate danger, sitting on 
the bed with her httle child by the hand, 
and her nurse with her infant babe by her 
side, was instantly shot dead by an unfeel- 
ing British soldier, who had come round to 



APPENDIX. 131 

the unguarded part of the house, with an 
evident design to perpetrate the horrid deed. 
Many circumstances attending this inhu- 
man murder, evince, not only that it was 
committed by the enemy with design, but 
also, that it was by permission, if not by the 
command of General Knyphausen, in order 
to intimidate the populace to relinquish their 
cause. A circumstance which aggravated 
this piece of cruelty, was, that when the 
British officers were made acquainted with 
this piece of cruelty, they did not interfere 
to prevent the corpse from being stripped 
and burnt, but left it half the day, stripped 
in part, to be tumbled about by the rude 
soldiery ; and at last it was removed from 
the house, before it was burnt, by the aid of 
those who were not of the army. 

Mrs. Caldwell was an amiable woman, 
of a sweet and even temper, discreet, pru- 
dent, benevolent, soft and engaging in her 
manners, and beloved by all her acquaint- 
ance. She left nine promising children. 

.Mrs. Caldwell's death was soon followed 
by that of her husband. In November, 
1781, Mr. Caldwell hearing of the arrival of 
a young lady at Elizabethtown Point, whose 
family, in New York, had been peculiarly 
kind to the American prisoners, rode down 
to escort her up to town. Having received 
her into his chair, the sentinel observing a 



132 APPENDIX. 

little bundle tied in the lady's handkerchief, said 
it must be seized for the state. Mr. Caldwell 
instantly left the chair, saying he would deliver 
it to the commanding officer, who was then pres- 
ent ; and as he stepped forward with this view, 
another soldier impertinently told him to stop, 
which he immediately did ; the soldier, notwith- 
standing, without further provocation, shot him 
dead on the spot. Such was the untimely fate 
of Mr. Caldwell. The villain who committed 
this attrocious and cold-blooded murder did not 
escape punishment : he was seized and executed. 
Mr. Caldwell was an eloquent preacher, and a 
warm patriot, and had greatly distinguished him- 
self in supporting the cause of his suffering coun- 
try. 

The bold and intrepid spirit of General Put- 
nam, so often displayed in acts of successful 
rashness, was never more apparent than on the 
occasion related in the following anecdote : 

In the year 1756, when Putnam fought against 
the French and their Indian allies, he was ac- 
cidentally with a boat and five men on the east- 
ern side of the Hudson river, near the spot where 
Fort Miller formerly stood, and contiguous to the 
falls. His men, who were on the opposite side, 
informed him by signal that a considerable body 
of savages were advancing to surround him. 
There was not a moment to lose. Three modes 
of conduct were at his option : to remain, fight, 
and be sacrificed ; to attempt to pass to the other 
side exposed to the full shot of the enemy ; or to 



APPENmx. 133 

sail down the waterfalls, with almost a certainty 
of being overwhelmed, as the river was high. — 
These were the only alternatives. Putnam did 
not hesitate, and jumped into his boat at the for- 
tunate instant, for one of his companions, who 
was at a little distance, was a victim to the In- 
dians. His enemies soon arrived, and discharged 
their muskets at the boat before he could get out 
of their reach. No sooner had he escaped this 
danger through the rapidity of the current, bijt 
death presented itself under a more terrific form. 
Rocks, whose points projected above the surface 
of the water ; large masses of timber that nearly 
closed the passage ; absorbing gulfs, and rapid 
descents, for a quarter of a mile, left him no hope 
of escape but by a miracle. Putnam, however, 
placed himself at the helm, and directed it with 
the utmost tranquillity. His companions saw him 
with admiration, terror, and astonishment, avoid 
with the utmost address the rocks and threaten- 
ing gulfs, which they every instant expected to 
devour him. He disappeared, rose again, and 
directing his course across the only passage which 
he could possibly make, he at length gained the 
even surface of the river that flowed at the bot- 
tom of this dreadful cascade. The Indians were 
no less surprised. This miracle astonished them 
almost as much as the sight of the first Euro- 
peans that approached the banks of this river. 
They considered Putnam as invulnerable ; and 
they thought that they should offend the Great 
Spirit, if they attempted the life of a man that 
was so visibly under his immediate protection. 
12 



134 APPENDIX. 

The Rev. Dr. Dvvight, in his travels, obsei'ves, 
that " it is not so extensively known as it ought 
to be, that General Putnam commanded the 
American forces at the battle of Breed's Hill ; 
and that to his courage and conduct the United 
States are particularly indebted for the advanta- 
ges of that day, one of the most brilliant in the 
annals of this country." He adds the following 
note, extracted from the sermon of the Rev. Dr. 
Whitney on the death of General Putnam : 

" The friends of the late General Putnam feel 
themselves not a little obliged to this worthy and 
respectable biographer, for giving to the public 
the distinguished features in the general's char- 
acter, and the memorable actions of his life ; yet 
wish that a more perfect and just account had 
been given of the battle on Bunker's Hill, so far 
as General Putnam was concerned in it. In page 
107 of his life are the following words : * The 
provincial generals having received advice that 
the British commander in chief designed to take 
possession of the heights on the peninsula of 
Charlestown, detached a thousand men in the 
night of the 16th of June, under the orders of 
General Warren, to entrench themselves upon 
one of those eminences.' And, in page 110th, 
' In this battle the presence and example of 
General Putnam, who arrived with the reinforce- 
ment, were not less conspicuous than useful.' — 
From the first of these passages the reader is led 
to conclude, that the detachment was first put 
under the orders of General Warren : from the 
second, that General Putnam came to General 



APPENDIX. 



135 



Warren's aid with a reinforcement. The true 
state of the case was this : The detachment at 
first was put under the command of General Put- 
nam. With it he took possession of the hill, and 
ordered the battle from the beginning to the end. 
General Warren, (one of the most illustrious 
patriots,) arrived alone on the hill, and as a 
volunteer joined the Americans just as the action 
commenced ; and within half an hour received a 
mortal wound, while he was waxing valliant in 
battle, and soon expired. These facts. General 
Putnam himself gave me soon after the battle, 
and also repealed them to me after his life was 
printed. Other evidence to confirm what I have 
said here, I am able to produce, if any should 
call for it." 

In the spring of 1818, an account of the battle 
of Bunker hill was published in a literary paper 
entitled the Port Folio, by Henry Dearborn, 
Esq. in which he animadverted on the conduct 
of General Putnam on that occasion with great 
severity. This attack upon the hard-earned 
reputation of the general excited universal indig- 
nation, and drew forth a mass of testimony in his 
favor, which, while it added additional lustre 
to his name, covered the author of the slander 
with confusion. Among the numerous refuta- 
tions of the calumny, we deem it necessary to 
copy only the following testimonials, from the 
rejoinder to General Dearborn's statement pub- 
lished by Daniel Putnam, Esq., son of the late 
general : 



136 APPENDIX. 

" In a letter from Judge Gros-venor, of P<5m- 
fret, Connecticut, it is stated that he was a lieu- 
tenant under the command of General Putnam, 
when, on the evening of the 16th June, 1775, 
a rodoubt was formed on Breed's Hill, under the 
immediate superintendence of the general, who 
was extremely active, and directed principally 
the operations during the battle on the 17th of 
June. And he adds, of the officers on the ground, 
the most active within his observation were, 
General Putnam, Colonel Preseott, and Captain 
Knowlton. 

" The following is a letter from Colonel John 
Trumbull, of New York, an officer of distinction 
in the revolutionary war, and the celebrated 
historical painter who was employed in his pro- 
fession by the Government of the United States, 
dated New York, 30th of March, 1818 : 

' In the summer of 1786, 1 became acquainted 
in London with Colonel John Small, of the 
British army, who had served in America many 
years, and had known General Putnam intimate- 
ly during the war of Canada, from 1756 to 1763. 
From him I had the two following anecdotes re- 
specting the battle of Bunker Hill. I shall 
nearly repeat his words : Looking at the picture, 
which I had then almost completed, he said — 
" I don't like the situation in which you have placed 
my old friend Putnam : you have not done him 
justice. I loish you would alter that part of your 
picture, and introduce a circumstance which actu- 
ally happened, and which I can never forget. — 
When the British troops advanced the second time 



APPENDIX. 137 

to the attack of the redouht, I, with other ojlcers, 
7oas in front of the line to encourage the men ; we 
had advanced very near the works undisturbed, 
when an irregular fire, like a feu de joi, was 
poured in on us ; it was cruelly fatal. The troops 
fell back, and when I looked to the right and left, 
I saw not one officer standing ; I glanced my eye 
to the enemy, and saw several young men levelling 
their pieces at me : I knew their excellence as 
marksmen, and considered myself gone. At this 
moment my old friend Putnam rushed forward, and 
striking up the muzzles of their pieces with his 
sword, cried out, ' For God's sake my lads, don't 
fire at that man — I love him as I do my brother.' 
We were so near each other that I heard his words 
distinctly. He was obeyed ; I boioed, thanked him 
and walked aioay unjnolested." 

' The other anecdote relates to the death of 
General Warren. At the moment when the 
troops succeeded in carrying the redoubt, and the 
Americans were in full retreat. General Howe, 
who had been hurt by a spent ball which bruised 
his ankle, was leaning on my arm. He called 
suddenly to me : " Do you see that elegant 
youn^ man who has just fallen '? — do you know 
him ?" I looked to the spot to which he point- 
ed — " Good God, sir, I believe it is my friend 
Warren." " Leave me then instantly — run — 
keep off the troops — save him, if possible." I 
flew to the spot : " My dear friend," I said to 
him, " I hope you are not badly hurt ?" He 
looked up, seemed to recollect me, smiled, and 
12* 



138 APPENDIX. 

died ! A musket ball had passed through the 
upper part of his head." 

' Colonel Small had the character of an hon- 
orable, upright man, and could have no con- 
ceivable motive for deviating from truth in re- 
lating tliese circumstances to me ; I therefore 
believe them to be true. You remember, my 
dear sir, the viper biting the file. The character 
of your father for courage, humanity, generosity 
and integrity, is too firmly established, by the 
testimony of those wlio did knoiv him, to be tar. 
nished by the breath of one who confesses that 
he did not. Accept, my dear sir, this feeble trib- 
ute to your father's memory, from one who knew 
him, respected him, loved him — and who wishes 
health and prosperity to you and all the good 
man's posterity. 

John Trumbull. 

Daniel Putnam, Esq.' 

" I shall make no comment," says Colonel Put. 
nam, " on the first anecdote by Colonel Small, 
except that the circumstances were related by 
General Putnam, without any essential altera- 
tion, soon after the battle ; and that there was an 
interview of the parties on the lines between 
Prospect and Bunker Hill, at the request of Colo- 
nel Small, not long afterwards." 

The following is the last letter written by Gen- 
eral Washington, in his military character, to 
General Putnam. It fully illustrates the merits 



APPENDIX. 139 

of the latter, and proves the high estimation in 
which he was held by the commander-in-chief: 

Head-Quarters, 2d June, 1783. 
Dear Sir, 

Your favor of the 20th of May, I received 
with much pleasure ; for I can assure you, that 
among the many worthy and meritorious officers 
with whom I have had the happiness to be con- 
nected in service through the course of this war, 
and from whose cheerful assistance in the vari- 
ous and trying vicisitudes of a complicated con- 
test I have derived so much benefit, the name of 
a Putnam is not forgotten, nor will be, but with 
that stroke of time which shall obliterate from my 
mind the remembrance of all those toils and fa- 
tigues through which we have struggled for the 
preservation and establishment of the rights, lib' 
erties, and independence of our country. 

Your congratulations on the happy prospects 
of peace and independent security, with their at- 
tendant blessings to the United States, I receive 
with great satisfaction ; and beg that you will 
accept a return of my gratulations to you on this 
auspicious event — an event, in which, great as it 
is in itself, and glorious as it will probably be in 
its consequences, you have a right to participate 
largely, from the distinguished part you have con- 
tributed towards its attainm,ent. 

But while I contemplate the greatness of the 
object for which we have contended, and felicitate 
you on the happy issue of our toils and labors, 
which have terminated with such general satis- 



140 APPENDIX. 

faction, I lament that you should feel the ungrate- 
ful returns of a country, in whose service you 
have exhausted your bodily strength, and expen- 
ded the vigor of a youthful constitution. I wish, 
however, that your expectations of returning lib- 
erality may be verified. I have a hope they 
may ; — but should they not, your case will not be 
a singular one. Ingratitude has been experienced 
in all ages, and Republics in particular have 
ever been famed for the exercise of that unnatural 

and SORDID VICE. 

The Secretary at War, who is now here, in- 
forms me that you have ever been considered as 
entitled to full pay, since your absence from the 
field; and that you will still be considered in 
that light until the close of the war : at which 
period you will be equally entitled to the same 
emoluments of half-pay or commutation, as other 
oflficers of your rank. The same opinion is also 
given by the Paymaster General, who is now 
with the army, empowered by Mr. Morris for 
the settlement of all their accounts, and who will 
attend to yours whenever you shall think proper 
to send on for the purpose ; which it will proba- 
bly be best for you to do in a short time. 

I anticipate with pleasure the day (and that 
I trust not far off) when I shall quit the busy 
scenes of a military employment, and retire to 
the more tranquil walks of domestic life. In 
that, or whatever other situation Providence 
may dispose of my future days, the remem- 
brance OF the many friendships and connex- 
ions I HAVE had the happiness TO CONTRACT 



APPENDIX^ 141 

WITH THE GENTLEMEN GF THE ARMY, WILL BE ONE 
OF MY MOST GRATEFUL REFLECTIONS. Under this 

contemplation, and impressed with the sentiments 
of benevolence and regard, I commend you, my 
dear sir, my other friends, and, with them, the 
interests and happiness of our dear country, to the 

KEEPING AND PROTECTION OF AlMIGHTY GoD. 

I have the honor to be, &c. 

George Washington. 
To the Honorable 

Major General Putnam. 



THE END. 



^:^'J3 c 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




